Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Faker

I once read this article in some women’s magazine.

That’s all.



No, really, that was a terrible beginning to a story but I am going to go on with it anyway. I once read an article in some women’s magazine about how many women don’t feel like they are…hmmm, what’s the word here…capable? Basically the article was about how some women, although I do not doubt for a minute that this is also true for some men (but I’ll come back to this in a moment), feel as if they are “faking it”. Faking their competency, really. They feel as if they aren’t really all that sure of what they are doing at work, at home, taking care of the kids, pretty much anywhere and they are all waiting to be found out. Waiting for someone to say “Hey, you really DON’T know what you are doing, do you?”

What struck me about the article was that Jodi Foster said that she felt that way. Jodi Foster, fluent in French, writer, director, actor, possible Academy Award winner but I don’t really know because I am really too lazy to look it up right now, said that she felt like she was going to get “caught” faking it. That made me feel better. Not so much because it’s Jodi Foster, but hearing that from any well respected person kind of takes the sting out.

So, you know, it’s not just you and it’s not just me. It’s Jodi Foster too.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Quite possibly the scariest moment of my adult life was when I realized that everyone in positions of power in government, media, and corporate life were, to varying degrees, just "faking it" as well.

I mean, there are gifted, super intelligent people out there, but the more I've dealt with government people (elected and career bureaucrats), CEOs, and very limited brushes with celebrities, the more I realize they are just people driven by different things. This was a sobering thought. In some ways, I prefered them to be on pedestals - the world seemed like a safer place that way.