Wow, this article has almost no content. Maybe wearing baggy clothes, thick-rimmed glasses and brown hair makes her behave differently? It's impossible to tell - you can't do double blind tests and repeating experiments in social situations is impossible. Also, n=1. There also counter examples, like Marissa Meyer or Thereza Holmes.
‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
11–20 of 36 posts
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#12It's interesting how capitalism is able to monetize everything even social justice. This story could be entirely made up, it fits perfectly in her narrative. I find it unlikely that the BBC reporter contacted her, most likely the PR firm recommended to her by the VC that "told her" to dye her hair arranged for that profile.
I'm going to post a slightly mean reply. Do you question every story you hear? My wife is a successful blonde female academic (more successful than me). I often go with her to events she is invited to and there is always some people who assume she is my "dumb wife" that I've brought with me. At every event at some point I usually have to say to someone "Don't ask me, I have no idea. Karen is the person you should be…
> Do you question every story you hear?
Do you not?
Edit: I feel a bit awkward about being on the same side as the "this is bullshit" people. I think the general message that it's harder for women to look "appropriate" in a business setting is probably fair, at least based on some of the conversations I've witnessed among my male co-workers.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#13My wife dyed her hair blonde once and noted a noticable change in how she was treated. She described it as people being nicer to her but also sort of taking her less seriously. She also got hit on a lot more. She went back to her normal brown pretty quickly. It's not just the obvious things like race. There are thousands of little prejudices. For guys I've read studies from sales about how men with broader shoulders…
It's only depressing if you've been told lies all your life to the contrary of reality.
For most people these things are rather obvious.
It's why business men wear suits instead of plain t-shirts (or worse, hoodies).
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#14Yeah, I dress according to the people I am meeting and what I hope to get out of the meeting. News at 11.
I am all for a meaningful debate about equality for all, and the barriers to this, however there is an increasing amount of bullshit like this around the topic that weakens and dilutes the overall debate, and that is a pity.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#15This story is very weird and either I'm missing the point or it only shows that everything is broken. Eileen Carey a CEO of a company that focus on software to empowering a diverse workforce dyes her her to be taken more seriously.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#16It amaze me how usually most schools for children don't have a class called "Logic 101" or something like, where we can teach people about Confirmation bias and that "Correlation != Causation".
God knows how many BS like this we could save if only people treated stereotypes as such, simple narratives easier to understand when we tell in stories, but aren't truth when applied to individuals in the real complex life we are.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#17It's interesting how capitalism is able to monetize everything even social justice. This story could be entirely made up, it fits perfectly in her narrative. I find it unlikely that the BBC reporter contacted her, most likely the PR firm recommended to her by the VC that "told her" to dye her hair arranged for that profile.
I'm going to post a slightly mean reply. Do you question every story you hear? My wife is a successful blonde female academic (more successful than me). I often go with her to events she is invited to and there is always some people who assume she is my "dumb wife" that I've brought with me. At every event at some point I usually have to say to someone "Don't ask me, I have no idea. Karen is the person you should be…
> Do you question every story you hear?
Generally speaking yes, especially if it us told to me by someone with a clear profit motive and not backed by evidence. Obviously the only reason this story works is because it is easy to believe that a typical VC has the stereotypical view of blond women you describe. That doesn't make it true or relevant.
Also imagine someone wrote a profile about Ursula von der Leyen, the current German Defence minister, who happens to have blonde hair and ~6 children. Or a profile on Manuela Schweswig, current family minister in Germany, who happens to be blonde, just had a child and pushed through a gender quota for executive positions in DAX companies. Both of them probably profit from being female, because their parties struggle to find enough female politicians, but it is not the reason for their success and I'm pretty sure they would not try to get publicity by talking about the adversity they faced being female. Their accomplishments speak for themselves.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#18One point not mentioned in the article, but obvious from the photo: her natural hair is black, and the blonde hair was also dyed.
That also stood out to me. She is just changing already not-original look from trying to be more attractive to be more serious. I really don't understand how this is interesting enough for full article.
It's an article about sexism and women complaining about sexism. This topic seems to be really trendy on Hackernews, judging by the shitstormy comment threads articles like that always generate.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm going to post a slightly mean reply. Do you question every story you hear? My wife is a successful blonde female academic (more successful than me). I often go with her to events she is invited to and there is always some people who assume she is my "dumb wife" that I've brought with me. At every event at some point I usually have to say to someone "Don't ask me, I have no idea. Karen is the person you should be…
> Do you question every story you hear? Generally speaking yes, especially if it us told to me by someone with a clear profit motive and not backed by evidence. Obviously the only reason this story works is because it is easy to believe that a typical VC has the stereotypical view of blond women you describe. That doesn't make it true or relevant. Also imagine someone wrote a profile about Ursula von der Leyen, the c…
Also just BTW I'm just getting a haircut because I will be speaking at a meeting with important people attending, so I want to look as professional as possible, which according to male stereotypes means short hair, no beard and no glasses.
Re: ‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’
#20It's interesting how capitalism is able to monetize everything even social justice. This story could be entirely made up, it fits perfectly in her narrative. I find it unlikely that the BBC reporter contacted her, most likely the PR firm recommended to her by the VC that "told her" to dye her hair arranged for that profile.
I'm going to post a slightly mean reply. Do you question every story you hear? My wife is a successful blonde female academic (more successful than me). I often go with her to events she is invited to and there is always some people who assume she is my "dumb wife" that I've brought with me. At every event at some point I usually have to say to someone "Don't ask me, I have no idea. Karen is the person you should be…
"my 'dumb wife' that I've bought with me."
I assume that's a typo, but it works either way ...