Queen Bee

Ups a daisy! The fact that English is not my mother tongue has caused another misunderstanding :-). This time it is a slang expression or (supposedly) a syndrome called “Queen Bee”.

First heard it in the song “Royals”

I heard the expression first in Lorde’s Song “Royals” and I assumed that a person called Queen Bee just wants to be in the centre of attention. That I do not mind at all and according to my family, I used to be like that as a child.

Queen Bee Syndrome

Turns out someone “suffering” from the Queen Bee Syndrome is a woman, successful in her career who is not willing to help other women getting ahead. Now that is totally controversial to what I like to do. Accordingly, you can not call me Queen Bee even though I humorously posted so on Google+ and probably as well on Twitter etc. Ah, well I got that one totally wrong, haven’t I?

Queen Bee of a Bee Hive

Besides this expression a Queen Bee is, of course, the mother of a beehive, pampered and fiercely protected by her colony. She is the only one who matures and can be sexually active so she is important to the survival of the hive.

I Love Bees

I love bees and I love honey and I love to watch them buzz around collecting pollen and creating honey. I love the Bee Movie. I love my bee mug. I love everything bee-connected. Besides those ladies called Queen Bee. Such a shame that this expression does not mean something nice. And I wonder if that syndrome really exists. In my experience, it was rather women superiors who helped me than male superiors. I found that males rather felt challenged by my obviously good work which none of them would admit of course. But maybe I got that one wrong as well. Who knows.