I don’t usually use this precious space to rant, but owning a company named Silver Vixen Enterprises, I am understandably interested in articles about silver hair. I cannot believe that Time Magazine devoted four full pages in their September 10 issue to the topic! To give them a modicum of credit, men were mentioned, but the main import and most pictures were devoted to assessing how women would look with or without gray hair.
Surveys were done and it was determined that those with grey hair are perceived as less intelligent, less attractive, and less believable. They are also deemed at a disadvantage in their personal social life and in the workplace. Ugh! Not only do we have to worry about our age and weight, we also have to add our hair color! To compete, we need to look 20 years younger. So much for wisdom, experience, and street smarts.
After being at the forefront of the women’s movement, proving ourselves for over 30 years, leaping tall buildings, exceeding all standards for advancement — now “they” want to pick the color of our hair!!! Pardon me while I get off my soapbox.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under HR, Marketing, Personal Growth, Publicity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.4 Responses to “When Is Impressive Good Enough? Part 2”
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October 9th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Bonnie – I really appreciated your thoughts on the Time article. I’ve been thinking about what you said since I read it last week, and decided to post about it in my blog tomorrow. I’ll trackback to this site, but as a courtesy wanted to let you know as well.
I subscribe to your blog and find it well-written and interesting – Thanks!
October 24th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Anne,
Thank you for all the kind words! I logged on to your site and we are definitely on the same wavelength!
Bonnie
November 4th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Bonnie
I find that assessment so frustrating. I began dying my hair at age 40 because I didn’t want to look like an old gray haired woman ( even I was influenced by that stereotype). At age 50 I stopped dying it. My husband constantly gave me a hard time about it and couldn’t believe I was pouring all these horrible chemicals on my head every month. It is silver gray now and people tell me they like the color all the time but it is hard to consciously choose to be natural knowing people see me as being less intelligent and less attractive. I look at my women friends who are all successful business women who have silver hair and I don’t see them as less intelligent, in fact, I see them as more intelligent and happy with themselves. So I wonder who it was who did the survey and who was polled. Kaya
November 7th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Live and Love. Be Bald!:)
Norvelle