Flavorwire: British media entrepreneur Amanda de Cadenet became a television host at only 15 years old, interviewing celebrities for two of the UK’s most successful shows, including the edgy, late-night program The Word. De Cadenet grew up in the spotlight, frequently photographed for her party-girl image and targeted by the tabloids. Eventually, she found herself behind the camera as a lauded photographer and one of the youngest women to shoot a Vogue magazine cover. She also became a mom.
4 comments:
This was a really powerful article that really touches on the importance of women in the workplace, as well as women being given roles of power that may be untraditional. I based my shoe project for Susan's class on the power of women in politics, and this article really emphasizes women in the workplace. On my shoe, I also addressed that women of color need to be heard more as well, because this issue is not just a white women's issue, and de Cadenet states that explicitly within the article. De Cadenet and I would get along very well, but she is also older and wiser and is able to actually make a difference because she even said when given the chance, she hires more women, and hopefully one day I'll be able to do that too and add women to the technical sides of theater.
I am sorry to say that I had never herd about the Girlgaze brand before reading this article. It sounds like this brand is growing and becoming more and more of a prominent source of visibility for powerful women. I thought it was interesting how the article started by telling us a little bit about the creator herself. It was interesting to her how the creator began by being poorly represented in front of the camera to building a brand from behind one. I would like to learn more from Amanda and how this shaped her career and why she created Girlgaze. It is cool to hear that this brand started out with some photographs and is now growing into it's very own magazine. Overall I think it is great that this brand focuses on giving women a place where Women's issues can be focused on and truly accepted for other women to hear.
I appreciate that Amanda de Cadenet addressed that women of color need their voices heard, too. I admit, when I read the first page of the article, I was worried that de Cadenet was going to try and present her voice as the voice of all teenage girls. I'm glad that she wants to use her position of power not only to highlight what her own experience of being a fifteen year old girl was like, but the experience of girls of all races and ethnicities. That is how you be an ally. I will admit that I am suspicious that many fifteen year old girls have wisdom or truth bombs to share that wider audiences can relate to; I know that when I was fifteen, most of what I said and most of what the other girls my age said that we thought was insightful was cocky BS. However, I am excited to read the book and explore more of de Cadenet's media.
There is the saying that one man in a room full of women is thrilled, one woman in a room full of men is terrified. That is fairly antiquated and having often been the only woman in a room of men I find it to be largely untrue, however, the idea still holds that being the only minority of any kind in a room of majority people can inhibit your ability to freely and confidently express your thoughts and options. I recently read a book called Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office, while the book had some good suggestions about self-branding and marketing, I took issue with other parts of the text because it seemed to imply that certain stereotypically "feminine" behaviors are not leadership material, which solely comes from the idea that only men (and more "masculine" women) are good leaders. Creating a more diversity-friendly is not difficult, as we discussed in Molly's class people tend to hire more people like themselves, so once you have women in positions of power in your company you will see more high-achieving women at all levels. The trick is to convince your white/straight/cis male executives to hire women in the first place. Our job as women is to not buy into the (male-perpetuated) myth that there is only room for one or two token women in positions of power and to support and advocate for each other.
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