Ursula von der Leyen

Today the European Parliament votes on whether Ursula von der Leyen will become the new president. Or not. Because the red carpets are not rolled out for everyone.

Practical as Ursula is, you get that, being the mother of seven (yes seven, seven) children, she decided not to waste time talking to the press, but visited everyone she needed to win over. Collar up, hair back.

Ursula seems to lack the favor factor. She would be too perfect. And come from a well-off family (as if a person can do anything about that), and have seven children, and have two university degrees (economics and medicine) and also have been with the same man for 33 years. And oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that she would look too perfect. Tailored jackets with a cheerful trim, collars up, hair back, and the perfect eyebrow.

And that, people would not like. Because, well, just too.

Now I sometimes find it a bit easy and perhaps silly to ask what we would say if it were a man. But I do it anyway. Highly educated, a nice father, hard-working, well-dressed, and also attractive. Wow, people would be at his feet.

In my Marie Claire period, the top boss (type Ursula as in: very smart and successful with a healthy love for fashion) was feared because she could negotiate so sharply. Because nothing escaped her. Because she was the first in the office and the last to leave. Unless the sale at Le Bon Marché started, then she would leave the building right at lunchtime and return three hours later with seventeen bags and display everything for her colleagues. But otherwise, she was afraid of nothing and no one. And with that, everyone was afraid of her. But if she had been a man, how would we have experienced her? That was the question I often asked myself. Then we would have found it all very normal.

Do we (yes, we, yes) need a dent to feel loved? This is separate from Von der Leyen's political portfolio, I am not politically knowledgeable and keep that area free for people who understand it, but purely how people perceive her as a person.

I conclude with the sentence that was conceived by the high lady of Marie Claire.

Think smart, look amazing.

And if others have a problem with that, then that is indeed a problem. Their problem.