Archives for August 2006

Here chicky, chicky, a short vocabulary quiz

August 29, 2006 by Susan Getgood

One of the pictures below is of a chick and the other is a woman. Can you guess which one?

Flickr image by Awesome Pets

Flickr image by ACME-Nollmeyer of
Acme Photography, Phoenix, AZ

A+ if your choice for chick was yellow and fuzzy.

One of the things that irked me about the item last week on why so many women choose PR as a career was that during her interview with Sam Whitmore, Sharon Barclay, the author of the paper, told Sam that she wanted to find out why so many "chicks" were in PR.

Now I suppose it is hip and cool to use derogatory slang about oneself or one’s group, whether it be race, class or gender, but it always sounds so false. Almost like the group is trying to show the dominant group how really cool they are by adopting, or co-opting, the negative term. As though somehow that might make it a positive.

Doesn’t work. At least not for me.

Tags: gender, sexism, PR, public relations

We’ve come a long way, baby?

August 24, 2006 by Susan Getgood

"Mama don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys," sings Willie Nelson. [lyric was Googled]

If they do, they better not marry a career woman, says Forbes. Because they’ll be sick, unhappy, cheated on and have a dirty house. [first seen on Just Shelley, who links to a lot of great commentary]

She’ll be more likely to lie as well. That’s why we’re so good at PR, says this PR practioner. (a woman, ouch). [hat tip Sherrilynne Starkie]

Yup, that’s what we really need. More images like these of professional women.

I suspect my readers wonder from time to time why I move away from my usual marketing, tech and PR topics, and go on what I affectionately call a "feminist gender bender."

Crap like this is why.

Sexism is still with us, no matter how much we wish it weren’t, and to say it ain’t so or pretend there is no problem, is to go through life with blinkers on.

Don’t.

Tags: sexism, Forbes, gender bias

“Whip It”

August 23, 2006 by Susan Getgood

There is something really wrong with kids singing the Devo song "Whip It."

I don’t care if it is Disney and Devo themselves who came up with the idea of Devo 2.0. Every time I hear the commercial, I cringe.

Just my opinion. YMMV.

The Sci-Fi Fan’s Curse

August 22, 2006 by Susan Getgood

I don’t watch much television. For any number of reasons. And those of you that really love the shows you watch should be really really glad.

Because just about everytime I start watching a long-running show regularly, it gets cancelled.

I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer regularly at the beginning of Season 7. Bye bye Buffy.

I followed my favorite BtVS character Spike to Angel when he shifted over in Angel Season 5. Hasta la vista, Angel.

Just this year, I started watching Stargate SG-1, mostly because it was on after Dr. Who on the Sci-Fi channel. I discovered I really liked Ben Browder and Claudia Black. Yup, you guessed it… this season (number 10) will be its last season on Sci-Fi. Announced yesterday.

I had watched all of these shows from time to time before I started watching them regularly but hadn’t really gotten into them, again for a number of reasons not really relevant to this post. And as soon as I did, the party was over.

BTW, this does not seem to happen when I watch a show from the beginning, so Bones and Dr. Who, the other two shows I enjoy these days, should be fairly safe since I’ve watched Dr. Who off and on since Dr. Number 3 and Bones since the beginning.

So, if there are shows you really really like, and would prefer I NOT watch, please feel free to let me know in the comments. And if there is a series you’d like to see gone, I’ll see what I can do. Unless it is Stargate Atlantis. Can’t get into that show at all, so you are on your own. Sandy, I’ll do my best to stay away from Battlestar Galactica.

Anyway, I am now TIVO’ing Farscape repeats and watching my Firefly and Remington Steele DVDs. I figure that’s safe, since those shows are already cancelled. 🙂

Tags: Stargate, Buffy, Angel, Farscape, Firefly, science fiction