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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, September 5, 2006

ABOUT WOMEN
Women too uber for words

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Columnist

Enough whining, guys.

When the term "metrosexual" was too manicured-eyebrows for you, out came "retrosexual."

And when you felt insulted by that beer-chugging-slob-with-love-handles image, you got "ubersexual."

Yes, ubersexual.

As if just being a guy wasn't enough.

No, you get a term for the perfect male specimen.

He's insanely attractive, intelligent, dynamic, confident, masculine, stylish — and able to shoot a jump shot and cook a gourmet meal. Quite possibly at the same time.

Think George Clooney, Jon Stewart and Bono.

Now is that good enough for you?

Because we females have no such catchy, cachet terms to describe us.

At least no positive ones.

At first I found that hard to believe.

Shouldn't there be just as many terms for the all-powerful female as there are for snow in Alaska? I mean, isn't that fair?

So I went around the office on Friday and asked some of my female colleagues to come up with a phrase used to describe women a la "ubersexual."

And none of us — all college-educated with functioning, caffeine-fueled brains — could think up a decent term.

The only female descriptors we came up were the ones we use in hushed voices:

Diva, Barbie, drama queen, alpha-female, Bridezilla and others we can't print here.

All horribly negative.

That has got to change.

We need — no, deserve! — some ultra-hip catch phrase to describe the strong, beautiful, courageous, smart and talented women out there.

Something cool enough to plaster on T-shirts and magazine covers.

Something bloggers will go crazy over.

Something Oprah will copyright.

"Feminist" has become too activist.

Tyra Bank's "fierce" didn't stick.

And anything out of Paris Hilton's mouth doesn't apply.

So what do we call women like Condoleezza Rice, Melinda Gates, Diane Sawyer and Maya Angelou?

Strong? Not enough.

Superstars? Too celeb-mag.

Uber? Done already.

I spent a good portion of Friday racking my brain, trying to come up with something that will describe that female super-being who defies the stereotypes, who isn't afraid to be herself — but who can still indulge in "Project Runway," find comfort in a pair of shoes and admit that she'd rather have the cake than the recipe for it.

Maybe there's no way to describe us, the complicated masterpiece that we are.

Maybe just "woman" will suffice.