I was very excited to read the book "The Bingo Theory" by Mimi Ikonn. The book is a guide to love, life, and relationships.
I'll first explain what The Bingo theory is. Then, I'll go into detail of what I liked and disliked about it, and lastly I will build on the idea of the book and add my own twist to it.
What is the Bingo Theory?
Mimi believes that "every single human on this planet has two energies living within them: the masculine and the feminine. The masculine energy helps us to operate in the outer world; it makes us strong, independent, and confident. The feminine energy, on the other hand, helps us love and connect to others. It’s what makes us creative and intuitive."
She says that all of this has nothing to do with your biological sex. You can be a man with a lot of feminine energy and you can be a woman with a lot of masculine energy.
Mimi believes that it is possible to be "the best of both worlds" meaning that it is possible to achieve a "perfect blend (balance) of the masculine and the feminine energy" which is what she calls "Bingo". The goal of the book is to teach its readers how to balance the masculine and feminine energies within them so that they can live life to the fullest.
Things I Liked and Didn't Like
I liked the way it is organized. It is very well thought through, and everything is explained well and carefully. I liked that she included headings that help you navigate through the book. I also really liked the cover and the illustrations throughout the book. The quotes also contribute a lot and help to convey her point.
“When you balance yourself-when you become a Bingo-you attract a different kind of relationship. When you’re a Bingo, you don’t need anyone to complete you. You’re already complete. You don’t need anyone to make you happy. You’re already happy. And you don’t need anyone to love you. You already love yourself and everyone around you. Instead, you love for the sake of loving. You love unconditionally, expecting nothing in return.”
At the beginning of the book there are two tests you can do. The first test, which has been known for a while, measures the length of your ring finger and your index finger. According to the test, if your ring finger is longer than the index finger, you have a dominant masculine energy. If your ring finger and index finger are the same length or if the index finger is longer than the ring finger, you have a dominant feminine energy. The second quiz that Mimi included is her original creation.
I think that the quiz she created is too obvious. The words that were chosen were not gender neutral. It's really easy to tell what words belong to each dominant strength. Also, unless you are an extreme example of either combination, this quiz would fail to indicate what your dominant strength really is.
To have a more accurate quiz, I would suggest having more words to choose from, and having words that are gender neutral, so that the reader wouldn't know where each word belongs, therefore completing a more accurate test without prejudice.
My Quiz Results
According to the quiz, I have a dominant feminine energy. However, in reality, I only possess half of the feminine energy characteristics Mimi talks about; the rest of them are from the masculine energy. For instance, she says that feminine energy is really disorganized and doesn't know how to deal with money. But, I've been very organized my entire life, and have always maintained a sheet that documents my expenses. Even as a 10-year-old, I counted my money before I wanted to spend it. I set myself a budget and didn't let myself go over it. It might be strange for a 10-year-old to act this way, but I've always been very conscious about money, something that a dominant feminine energy is not supposed to possess as her dominant trait.
What Do I Believe?
I believe that your dominant energy can shift from masculine to feminine, and vice versa, throughout life. For example, as previously mentioned, after completing Mimi's quiz, it turned out that I have a feminine dominant energy. But growing up, my dominant energy was masculine, and I didn't have as many feminine characteristics. However, I've matured, and learned to embrace more "feminine" characteristics to a point where they became more dominant than the masculine characteristics I have.
Also, to add on Mimi's theory, I believe that she only presents the most extreme cases, but in reality, I think that most people are a combination of both dominant energies, meaning they display each dominant side in different times in life, in different situations, and with different people. I believe we can lean more towards one energy than the other, but when we are around other friends who are more extreme than us, we can find ourselves on the other spectrum.
For example, I can be naturally more feminine than masculine at the moment, but when compared to a friend of mine who is also feminine, I can display more masculine characteristics, that come to me naturally, in certain situations, than she does. Therefore, I think that our dominant energies are not set in stone. I think our combination of characteristics from each energy is what makes us unique. I can be a sensitive person (which is what a dominant feminine energy possesses), but compared to another friend, I can be not sensitive at all, and even be considered insensitive (which is a dominant masculine energy characteristic). So in my opinion, our dominant energy can change (or be perceived differently) in comparison to the dominant energy of other people. Overall, I think that the traditional definition of our 'feminine' and 'masculine' energies is an illusion that can be viewed differently by each person.
To sum it up, I really enjoyed her tips on how to strengthen the areas you are weak in and how to improve your relationship with yourself and your loved ones. I believe you should read all the different combinations she presents in the book to know how to tailor the book to your needs, find out what you should work on, and learn how you can find the person that is right for you. Although Mimi points the obvious, up until the moment I read the book, I didn't realize that the connection has always been there.
For those who are interested in buying the book, you can buy the book here.
I hope you enjoyed reading this.
Love you all,
Sophie
Edit (Oct. 8, 2016): I found a direct link to the Bingo Theory quiz on the book's website. Click here to do the quiz.
