Women are born crazy—and what about it?
The release of the Nike Dream Crazier campaign has been the talk of the town since its premiere at the recent Academy Awards. The film, narrated by Serena Williams, features female athletes that have become an inspiration by breaking barriers and challenging the world of sports. More than a celebration of the women in sports, it’s time to look at the campaign as the next step at female reclamation. Women, it’s about time we redefine and reclaim the word “crazy”.
But First, Femme
A lot of women have always felt like they’ve never really owned their bodies. There are many factors to this of course. In a traditional setting, we would grow up with parents dictating what to do with our bodies. It is, of course, about proper hygiene. We would learn the basics and grasp that, especially for women, the body is sacred. The media has also been pointed out in this issue, saying that its depiction of the female body has always different from real life. The perfection they present have molded a lady’s mind into thinking about what should and shouldn’t be done to our bodies.
But in this age of “reclamation” and feminism, more and more women are starting to become aware that our bodies are our own. It’s not owned by our parents, spouses, or the media.
The reclamation of the female body has become a source of strength for many women. No one knows your body more than anyone else. Everything that happens with it is beautiful and nobody can tell you otherwise. To finally come to this realization only resulted in more and more women loving themselves and understanding the power that their body holds within. In the process, we find more ideas we’ve all been led to believe are wrong just like how we’re all called “crazy”. Yes, women are crazy. So what?
Crazy, Beautiful, Rich
When Nike came out with their Dream Crazier campaign one thing came to mind. “Damn right, women are crazy!” Regardless of the fact that the campaign is geared to celebrate the women in sports who have broken gender boundaries and challenged norms, the campaign was a beautiful reclamation of the word “crazy”. As a child, calling someone crazy would subject me to some really bad spanking from my parents and grandparents. It’s not a good word, they said. It’s something you tell people who are “not on their right minds”. But what’s a woman’s right mind anyway?
Growing up, I would keep that in mind and it would only take about 22 years of my life before realizing that being called “crazy” can’t be that bad, especially for a woman. Just like how Serena Williams narrated it on the video, “If we show emotion we’re called dramatic. If we want to play against men, we’re nuts. And if we dream of equal opportunity, delusional.” It’s not easy to face these words on a regular basis. Here and there, people will throw these at us like rocks but the only way to face it is to understand that these are nothing but words.
We can only be hurt by how we perceive these words. More than in sports, there are many things that a crazy woman can do. From leading the IMF to challenging a role meant for a man, women have been doing crazy things left and right. As Serena ends her narration, “So if they wanna call you crazy, fine. Show them what crazy can do.”
Watch the Nike Dream Crazier film below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whpJ19RJ4JY
Main art from Harpers Bazaar Arabia
See Also:
https://mega-onemega.com/nike-just-do-it/
