Leverage and Utility

Why the lioness does most of the hunting but the lion is king

Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash

Those who’ve read my writing for long know that I love the wild, and that I also love illustrating ideas and concepts with what happens in the wild. So, here is yet another one.

I was recently chatting with a friend of mine who is very passionate about women’s affairs. She knows she can be biased, so when in doubt, she likes to ask me what I think. She has praised me for being fair, sober, and impartial.

The subject at hand was a situation which she felt was unfair (to one of the parties involved), and knowing my love for wild animals, she compared the “unfairness” to the way lionesses have to do most of the hunting while the lion remains boss, honored as the king of the pride and jungle. She was excited telling me this, you know, the way a friend knows, “I’ve got you here.”

I agreed that lionesses do most of the hunting, indeed almost 90% of it, but I explained to my friend that that doesn’t mean they matter most in the pride ecosystem. You know that I never keep people waiting, so here’s why:

The lioness is useful, but the lion has leverage. Simply, without the lion, there’s no pride. A predator will appear, take the territory, and then kill the cubs. There will be no territory in which to hunt, and there will be no cubs to continue the bloodline. So, protection simply ranks higher than hunting, because to eat, you must at least be alive.

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Often, I meet people who think that theirs is the most important job or role. They try to convince me why they are being undervalued and underappreciated. It could be in a relationship or marriage, it could be in the organization in which they work, but it is also often in the social setting when analyzing group dynamics.

We must know that there is a difference between being useful and having leverage. The point should be to ascend the ladder to go much further than being useful. It should be to make sure you aren’t replaceable.