Archive for September, 2011
The Guardian has an excellent article on the Public Leaders Network about a leadership study at Oxford Brookes University that shows gender issues still dominate perceptions of what makes a good boss.
The intriguing results of this study include findings that female managers were rated much lower than men even though their staff rated them higher!
Obviously there is much work to be done erasing gender issues in the workplace.
Posted in 
Tags: Just as I was sickened by the raunchy, sexual “comedy” from all but one of the contestants in the Funniest Woman in California competition, I am also horrified at how we are being taught that our sole worth is our desirability:
in ads (Zappos uses naked women to sell their shoes!)
by news commentators (Hillary is a bitch and Sara is a dolt)
in movies, videos, web content
in beauty pageants were little girls strut on catwalks.
Thanks to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an award-winning documentary, Miss Representation captures in horrific graphics this current reality. It premieres October 20 on OWN. But you don’t have to wait! Here’s a trailer.
Go to the web site. Sign up to host a screening. Buy the DVD. Sign the pledge.
But remember, the purse has always been more powerful than any pledge. Do not watch shows that portray us as a slut. Do not buy clothing from companies that exploit us. And let the companies and production houses know why.
P.S. Zappos is a huge disappointment. Their business model is unique. The desire of Tony Hsieh to project family values in the business and “bring happiness” is note-worthy. But somewhere his marketing people have become derailed and the walk and talk no longer match. It’s at women’s expense.
Maybe it was just me. Then again, all the men AND women who gathered in our group to support our colleague, Lola, in her stretch to become the funniest woman in California voiced the same disgust: “What could these females have been thinking?!?!?!?!” (Or possibly smoking or drinking?)
The scene: a comedy club in Burbank, CA. This was the finals for the Funniest Woman in California. The finalists ranged from some 20 year-old wild-haired chick to our colleague, age 81, and in need of a “walking stick”. Trust me—Lola, was ahead of the rest of the pack by at least 40 years.
She was also head and shoulders above the pack because of what she did not do!
The rest used every vulgarity they could think of, put sex and gestures into even the tiniest thinnest joke and shrieked into a microphone with such intensity, the ten-penny nails must have jumped out of the studs, (Oops… I did add a sexual inference there. Trust me, these females would have picked it up and made it incredibly obscene.)
Lola won. Hands down. But we lost that night. We lost our confidence in a generation that seems intent on destroying every sense of decency and personal integrity. We lost our real sense of humor. There was nothing funny about their crass “jokes” that were both tasteless and useless.
And I felt women lost that night as all but Lola chose to portray themselves as sexual objects with body parts and a fantasy to men. They dealt themselves, and the rest of us women, a fierce blow.
No wonder I came home—happy for Lola—but just as sad, discouraged and depressed about what we have become. Please tell me that this is not the kind of humor you want to hear! I trust those of us who felt like leaving are not alone.
