The Adventuress Manifesto

Once upon a time fairy tales were taken with a pinch of salt. Universal truths were spun into magical yarns around the same hearth frequented by the down at heel Cinderella before her glass slippered metamorphosis. Then these stories were Disney-fied: restyled, repackaged, rebranded and marketed by way of a free figurine with every McDonald’s Happy Meal. Everyone could be the princess, or prince, with Ken and Barbie looks and lifestyle. Got a pumpkin? Trade it in, pimp it up, max out the plastic, and bippity boppoty boom you have a carriage, or a Cadillac. But default on those repayments and well, you know what happened on the stroke of midnight… This is An American Tale, a Mickey Mouse dream, a confection all wrapped up in sheeny shiny meritocracy.

 The trouble is all work and no play makes Cinders a dull ideal. We want it all and we want it now, feasting on fast fantasies, doled out by stars, in pink perfume bottles promising happy ever afters. We have red shoe rage. No sooner does one unfulfilled fantasy fade than we get to wishing on another star’s stylish lifestyle, following their fads, hooked on getting that quick fantasy fix. But material girls, and boys, never satisfied, need more, more, more, spinning eternally on the consumer carousel, our red shoes carrying us ever faster, having all the fun of the un-fair. Shopping is the nation’s favourite pastime. And we shop, shop, shop till we drop, drop, drop, our red shoes snapping impatiently at our heels. You can have it all. You’re worth it, they whisper. And so we take a bigger bite of the apple.

 And we’re sleep walking, zombie-like through our existences. We’re in the red. We bury our heads in the sand. ‘I have simply nothing to wear,’ we say.  But negate to acknowledge the irony. Our appetite is insatiable. Our addiction grave. The clock is striking twelve and we’re feeling queasy from all the ‘Let them eat’ cake.  We know deep down we’ve been seeking to satiate our immaterial desires by way of material dreams. It’s time to acknowledge our habit, come out of the closet and question our consuming passions.

It’s become evident that changing rooms are not the source of a new improved you. And as the protective veil of zombosis is lifted we take a long hard look in the mirror and begin to realise we’ve got everything inside out and back to front. We need to trade in our wishbones for back bones. It’s up to us to ‘be the change we want to see in the world’.

Look ‘adventuress’ up in the dictionary and you’ll read something like ‘gold-digger’ -think bottle blondes from Jean Harlow to Anna-Nicole. But here the term is being adopted and the meaning adapted for an altogether more positive purpose. Being an adventuress in the 21st century means breaking free from the red shoe shackles, leaving the Cinderella blues behind and choosing your own adventure. It means following your own bliss, not the Beckham’s. It means finding out what makes you tick and not shirking the work, or playing the blame game. It’s about consuming consciously, with a conscience, considerately. 
 
We want to live happily ever after, to find contentment, and so we need to communicate creatively and create a new sense of community.  We are realising ‘As within [you], so without’ has world-wide implications: 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? … We are all meant to shine, as children do. … It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

(There’s an apocryphal story of how everyone’s favourite fairygodfather, Nelson Mandela, used Marianne Williamson’s spellbinding words at his inauguration; it may not be true, but it has made their magic all the more potent.)
 
There’s nothing wrong with the red shoes per se, it’s what you do with ’em that counts. Remember how the Wicked Witch of the West harangued Dorothy like a harpie over them ruby slippers? Well you’re on your Yellow Brick Road, this is your Wonderland. It’s time to stop star gazing, choose your own adventure and make your mark… Because there’s no place like home.

The Manifesto:

1. Be happy in your own skin.

2. Consume consciously, considerately, with a conscience.

3. Realise you need to be the change you want to see in the world.

4. Participate in a new economy founded on community and creativity.

5. Reap what you sew – re-use, repair, recycle.

6. Treat the present as a gift.

7. Go with the flow.