What was she thinking?

Will she still like this public portrayal in 20 years?

Sara observes: I was walking around a local college campus during their recent elections.  A young woman had signs from one end of campus to the other proclaiming her run for “Head of the Programming Council.”  By the way, this is not a picture of Phyl, Muffy, Fluff-for-Brains or whatever her name is.  However, it is eerily similar.   I have to be honest, when I saw the signs I began to chuckle…several rude comments about the type of programming she might recommend just leapt into my head before I could shoo them away.   Here are some questions that remain for me:  what is she selling?  No, seriously, when you put your picture on a sign and post it in public, you are selling something! What is the cost of using that type of picture?  Once posted, it will never go away completely…so that question will follow her into the future.  What message did she mean to convey?  This young woman and the logic she and her political campaign committee used elude me.

I am left with a painful example of why women have difficulty changing their image.   Gail Evans, points out in “Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman”  that  the problem is, when women act in a manner that confirms stereotypes,  all women get categorized.  This journey of equality needs to begin earlier than I had been thinking.  It’s important that we teach our daughters the value of self respect, the importance of being aware of their impact and how long the future might be (case in point, hiring companies checking candidates out on MySpace and Facebook.)

Those who know me, know I am not one to publicly poke fun at someone as I am doing now.  Please know that I wish the best for Muffy.   To be fair to her, I’ve carefully left out the name of the university, concealed her real name and even used a fake picture…so, if this sounds like someone you know and you are offended, talk to them, not me.

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