Thongcharm
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Fitness Magazines and Offsites
I am sometimes a lazy person. I love to sit back on a weekend, pop on My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and paint my toenails. I admit that I can’t always be gardening, cleaning, painting or doing something else to better myself or my life.
But, I don’t think I am always a lazy person. I think I am not kidding myself when I say I work hard at work, drive my team hard, and we produce good results. (Keep me honest, work readers).
All this is a preamble of intellectual honesty for my current predicament: the marketing offsite.
I’m all for a good marketing offsite. And we discuss some good big questions - like - what is our brand? What does it mean? how can we be synonymous with cheese across the country? What can we do to make Swiss more popular? Can we tout our relationship with Subway sandwiches? Would that increase our brand awareness?
These are lovely questions. Worthy questions. But, the answers all fall into one of three categories:
- Stuff that would require more human time and effort
- Stuff that would require more money
- Stuff that would require a group of other people outside the group to invest more time and more money
Which brings me to fitness magazines. I don’t read them because staring at some chick’s awesome abs makes me want them - just as I want to be synonymous with cheese. (well, not me. my company) But, I don’t have those abs because I haven’t got the time (or can’t prioritize it above Gypsy Wedding and Toes) and haven’t got the money (to pay the trainer).
So, spending 3 days discussing how awesome my abs could be if only I was someone else with other resources and different priorities… make me scream “either give me time or money or both!” Don’t tempt me - nay - MANDATE my hot abs without giving me the tools to execute.
That will just make me angry.
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Women in the Workplace
I was just reading one of my favorite blogs by Bob Sutton, the author of The No Asshole Rule (a book that should be mandatory for everyone in any organization.)
The blog summarized findings on the behavior of powerful women in work situations. And, while I can make a great list of why being female in a male dominated workplace is… challenging… these discussions of women keeping quiet more readily always strike me as odd. Other studies say women don’t make definitive statements or drive conclusions or otherwise comply with the rules of the male jungle.
While I’m sure that there are many brilliant, accomplished women who do behave in this way, I find it doesn’t resonate with my own experience, or with the direction of the younger generation. Maybe we’re all too young to qualify for a “women in powerful positions” study, but I would argue I am often overly definitive at work. I speak my mind, often with too little hesitation.
That is not to say that I insult people - but if a project is misguided, a plan is untenable, or a decision is wrong, I will call it (at an appropriate time). Being the only woman in staff meetings never stopped my weighing in - and sometimes gives me more right to the floor as the guys feel it only polite not to hush the only female.
There are plenty of other uncomfortable, frustrating and demeaning situations I’ve been in at work, due to my gender - from outright harassment to the perpetual discomfort of being the only fully-clothed female in a bar after the team dinner. And, I would argue that’s true for many of my peers - both in age and in org chart.
It will be interesting to see the changing nature of these power studies over the next years.
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”In 2010, a UN report said that wireless technology becoming a common medium has done more to lift people out of poverty than any other technological advance in history. In the poorest countries in the world, every 10 percent increase in cell phone penetration tends to add about 1 percent per year to GDP. It’s a stunning thing,
Bill Clinton
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Image Rehaul
Now that I know that over 30% of America is obese, it seems high time to reframe this disease into something more pride inducing.
“I’m just a Type More, you know? I guess that makes me weigh more but I can’t really mind it. I just want the most out of life”, Sam the overweight non-coked up banker
“Well yes I do have a Patriotic predilection. I would rather eat an honest American hamburger made out of a Texan cow. It’s just good family values.” Tina the former Miss Wichita from Kansas
“You could dress me in a brown sack and I’d look amazing!” Sandra, the Walmart fashionista
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One way to set yourself up for disappointment: compare Girls to Sex and the City. SATC accomplished several things:
1. It democratized women choosing their careers over traditional family life, while recognizing that the characters will always struggle with their choices.
2. It worshipped every vein of New York City, drawing crowds for cupcakes, clearing the old guard and making way for new designers, restaurants, and neighborhoods.
3. It celebrated female friendship, while studying female sexuality.
4. It was legitimately funny.
Girls, on the other hand, has shown promise in the first few episodes for some funny quips, but it is trying to accomplish something different:
1. It is attempting to legitimize the ennui and laziness of the Millennial generation. They are graduating without jobs, they have a sense of entitlement, and many of them have wealthy Boomer parents with extra funding to spare.
2. To date, it has used New York as a mere backdrop instead of a main character. That abortion clinic could have just as easily been in Hoboken.
3. In their attempt to be shamelessly relatable, the characters have very little hope of actually being desirable. Its predecessor aptly balanced both. Watching ugly people fornicate simply isn’t inspiring.
4. It has little grounding via relativism. All the characters, main and secondary, are white (save the Asian girl in the pilot who is “good at Photoshop”). All the characters to date are straight. All the characters are the same age. They have very little interaction with people of different birth cohorts (the stoner dad of the kids that Jessa babysat barely counts. As does the disheveled working mom who was clearly too busy/overworked to take a shower). The show has yet to build some contrast.
As someone older and a bit wiser (and a proud Gen Xer), I humbly offer a few words of advice. Make a black friend. Make a gay friend (not an ex-boyfriend that you turned gay and then made fun of). Hang out with some beautiful people. Get on a treadmill. Lay off the carbs. Put on some makeup. Expand your wardrobe beyond the likes of Urban Outfitters. Don’t make a date rape joke in a job interview just to get a cheap laugh from the audience. Leave that stuff to Larry David.
Good luck, Girls.
