Validation, shmalidation

I have been much exercised by thoughts of men and women in the past couple of days. Not my usual men and women getting up to men-and-women-type-activities thoughts either.

 

Take Ponzi schemes, for example. I didn’t have a clue about these when first Gary mentioned them, so I did a quick google search and Wikipedia helped me out. I was amazed by these scams. Amazed they worked and amazed that people had the brass balls to actually promote them. How did these promoters summon up the courage to go out into the market with, well, nothing? How did they sit in meetings and sell their non-existent wares? Didn’t they fear they’d be immediately found out, shut down, carted off to prison?

The brass balls are clearly the answer. I don’t know whether it’s true, but I’d bet Mr W’s brass balls that all the promoters of Ponzi schemes are men. It strikes me as being a particularly male scam - roll up, roll up, invest your wads of hard-earned readies with us because our dicks are bigger and swing higher than the rest and we know just how to manipulate investments to pay whacking great returns - when really they're just robbing Peter to pay Paul (or sometimes even to pay Peter himself). The sheer front of it!

Then there’s the change in the title of our blog. You might have noticed we’re now Two real writers, awaiting validation. I did agree to the change when Gary suggested it. I even thought it a good idea, given our musings on what makes a ‘real’ writer and a writer’s need for validation. But I couldn’t bring myself to actually make the change. Oh my god, no. Who do I think I am? I can’t say that. Gary could say it though and, although I know I’m being pathetic in my pretend writerness, I wonder whether that’s because he’s a bloke?

All this is nicely underlined by a TED talk I saw the other day: Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are | Video on TED.com. Cuddy’s research was into what she called ‘power poses’ and how adopting these typically male poses affects the chemical response in our brains. Lounge back in your chair, legs akimbo to show off your package, hands behind your head (just like our Ponzi promoters would do) for two minutes and the levels of testosterone in your body will rise by 20% and your cortisol levels (which drive response to stress) will fall by 25%. Yes, after just two minutes. Sit meekly with hunched shoulders worrying that someone is going to find out you’re not a real writer and your testosterone will fall and cortisol rise. I bet that feels a lot like I did when I first saw the new blog title.

Enough already. My dismal wretchedness about being a real writer is getting boring. Amy has inspired me. I’m going to power pose my way to self-validation.