Bossy

I've seen this before, but it annoyed me all afresh when I saw it just now in the Facebook feed for the Colbert Report. I'm transcribing from memory, but I think this is pretty close:

The next time you hear someone call a little girl "Bossy," stop them and say, "That little girl isn't being bossy. She's demonstrating executive leadership skills."

People, listen. Some little girls are bossy. Some little boys are bossy. When we see them being bossy, we absolutely need to call them out on it. Bossiness is not an "executive leadership skill." It's the substitution of brute intimidation for genuine people skills. It's a terrible detriment to our society, and it needs to be discouraged -- across the board.

This is the kind of empowerment we don't need: an empowerment that says dictating to others without respect or politeness is the right of men and therefore should be the right of women as well. No. It's not anybody's right to badger someone else into submission, ever.

Also: the next time you see someone judging a situation on the basis of a single word, you should stop that person and say, "Excuse me, but it appears that you have what's called a 'trigger word.' That's a word that provokes an unreasoning, reflexive, and usually negative reaction often disproportionate to or entirely inappropriate for the actual circumstances. You might want to seek professional help for that."