I’m not a feminist and have never been one, mostly because the likes of Germaine Greer, Erica Jong, Naomi Wolf, Camille Paglia et al have no relevance to me, my education or my career. Yes, I’ve read their works. Yes, I can differentiate between them. Yes, purely out of general interest in the same way I’ll read about botany if I need to. No, not to be indoctrinated by their theories about anything.

First of all, I’m Chinese. In our cultural and belief system we respect women as people who “hold up half the sky” and that tradition has been with us for millennia whilst American feminism is all of about 40 years. Second of all, none of those women who cite Virginia Wolfe and the need for female economic independence or “the room of one’s own” works in the sectors that are serious levers in the global economy: manufacturing, finance and technology (the “male” sectors). In other words, they write an awful lot of books about being torch-bearers for women and women being able to do and achieve anything, yet they themselves can’t put a chassis into a car, structure a financial product or code an application. In fact, they can’t and don’t even WRITE how to do any of those skills so are women supposed to be inspired by them to believe that they can do what men can do? Third of all, none of those women are CEOs, CTOs, CxOs and they have no influence or power or sign-off over US$billions balance sheet budget or teams.

It’s been a constant source of bemusement when one woman of letters, female psychologist (aka word spinmeister who bandies “girl power” about) or other steps forward and claims to be the leader of my gender.

They are NOT leaders of or role models for my gender at all.

The real leaders and role models for women are the ones who work in the manufacturing, finance and technology sector ON THE FRONT LINE — consistently originating, building, developing and delivering on innovations which generate US$millions/billions in profits. Other genuine female role models are the ones who work in legislative and enforcement bodies (e.g. politicians and campaigners) whose signatures on bills such as child protection, equal pay, non-discrimination, climate change protocols etc. actually COUNT towards making the world a better, safer and more equitable for the more rather than the few.

The most important female role models are, obviously, the billions of ordinary hard-working MOTHERS in the world who — regardless of economic status — give their children and others those invaluable gifts of love, attention, time, care and consideration.

Today I became more conscious than ever of the failure of Western feminism. I read that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has set up her own website:

Apparently, under her profile page are these “gems” (I say this ironically):

* As with Michelle Obama, it is a beauty contest between Princess Letizia, a former star journalist, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, ex-top model.

‘From their Louboutin shoes to their Azzedine Alaïa dresses, the essentials are all there.’

* ‘In 2008, the woman who has 142 Rolling Stone covers to her name (Annie Liebovitz) unveiled Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on the front page of Vanity Fair: riding boots and jodhpurs in front of the Elysee Palace tapestries. “The New Jackie O?” asks the headline.’

Now, it’s fairly clear that AlwaysTheTwain is my personal blog space which covers projects I’m working on, issues I’m passionate about and what I believe needs to be synergized in the technology, finance, business, macro-economics and society spaces. However, what’s also noticeable is that this is true:

(1.) There are no pictures of me that take up a sizeable proportion of the site or are a key feature here.

In fact, to my knowledge there are no pictures of my face here or on any site. The only time my face is visible anywhere is in the documentary where I talk about the serious topic of global consciousness, my father’s coma situation and how we need to build more QUALITATIVE tools for the Web.

(2.) There’s almost negligible mention of what brands of clothes, shoes or accessories I’m into.

There is, though, plenty of substance about what I think about the upcoming Apple tablet, Wolfram Alpha versus Google, which restaurants have talented chefs, what needs to be re-imagined to make global economic systems function more effectively, etc.

So………when I see websites like CBZ’s, it’s just a statement about the failure of Western feminism. We have the wife of a G8 world leader who is promoting her own image and style rankings relative to other wives of world leaders rather than……..for example actually inventing a new, credible and serious-minded economic system or a computer program which redistributes wealth in a more equitable way. In Carla Bruni-Sarkozy what we seem to have is a wife of a G8 world leader who — unlike Michelle Obama: academically gifted and hard-working (Princeton law graduate), has been responsible for US$ millions budget in senior hospital management, and a strong mother and wife who champions girls’ education and that being “Smart and getting an education is cool!” — chooses to use her own platform to write about her, herself, her looks and what she’s wearing.

Wow, when Tim Berners-Lee said that the Web would be a “mirror of society” I bet he wasn’t thinking that websites would be extensions of our personal narcissism and vanity, but rather mechanisms to reflect what’s important in terms of moving society and our thinking forward.

LOL.

The feminists would be wise to learn this: “Men are not our enemies. Some sisters who are prominent in the public eye promote women and what being a women is about in a way that means people infer we’re about little more than glossy, vain, superficial and inconsequential things like clothes, make-up and style competitions with other women.”

That’s certainly not how I regard MY life as a woman. My life and I are certainly about more consequential things than whether I’m wearing Laboutin or Jimmy Choo (as per the ‘Sex & the City’ crew). It’s certainly never been about competing with other women over who’s better looking, who’s wearing what and who attracts more male partners.

Actually, our personal style should be the bow+tie wrapper on our smarts (academic and/or street and common sense), our mettle to realize projects, our commitment to societal changes and our values.

Our personal style should not be and IS NOT the sum of our substance as women.

For CBZ to create a site like this and portray women (including Michelle Obama and Princess Letiziaas who incidentally has a degree from Complutense University which is one of Spain’s top schools) being little more than clothes-horses when CBZ has the media influence to spotlight serious issues like global child poverty, climate change, educational programs etc. is, frankly, a genuine disappointment.

CBZ is not my personal female role model. Any female CEO or CxO or mother who is working hard to raise her children and provide them with good educations and a loving, stable home in which to flourish would be a much better and smarter choice.