Show & Tell: Power

This has been sitting in drafts for most of the week but this morning I could finally finish it! The post on "Oh my God, how embarrassing!" will have to wait until the weekend. Watch this space!

Taina's fourth theme of the month is makt or power. I haven't had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about. I have been contemplating a serious post about gender equality or about political power games but unfortunately I don't have the time for that right now.

Instead I thought I'd just list all the stuff I think of when I hear "power". It's mainly about power relationships and dependence, either between two people or between a person and something abstract, for example a custom. Sometimes it's more about "force" rather than the Swedish word makt. Other/better Englih words than power are perhaps influence, might, potency, power. Wikipedia explains well both in English and Swedish.

- the power of one individual over another; which can also be associated with coercion



- the power of a country over another

- the Cold War as in the demonstration of power or might and the balance of power

- the power of men over women; I would say men as a group have more power over women but this does not necessarily mean than an individual man have power over an individual women.



- related to that the power over one's own body; I'm thinking specifically about the pro-life/pro-choice debate in the US mainly

- the power society have on us, society as in structure, cultural conceptions and traditions



- the fact we also need to conform to the structures of society as in work, calendar time (the clock); though this varies from one culture to the other; not all feel the power of the protestant work ethic

- whether one feels they feel/have power over their own life (beyond the shackles of society as described above), for example having a say at work



- also the power bad habits have on us, how hard it may be to get out bad behaviour, whether it is nail-biting or crime

- democracy

- the power of money and capital



- the power of love;

- the mix of love and politics in flower power :)

- the power of fashion



- the power of advertising

- electric power or energy

- and the lack of power; powerlessness, impotence (vanmakt)

Images from user.tninet.se, sfs.se, jbsaint.wordpress.com, 12manage.com, resume.se, marianova.com and supportdell.com