‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41082939

by gadders • 9 years ago

35 32 9 years ago

bbc.co.uk

orbifold3• 9 years ago

It'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.

CJefferson4• 9 years ago

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 speaking to", and they are always surprised. I've had people accuse me of lying when I say my wife is better at some academic topic than me. Yes, genuinely. That isn't an exaggeration.

I can see it's annoying being a blonde and female academic. Far too many people just seem to have hard-wired that "blonde female = stupid".

Joeboy• 9 years ago

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.

orbifold3• 9 years ago

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.

beagle3• 9 years ago

"my 'dumb wife' that I've bought with me."

I assume that's a typo, but it works either way ...

dekhn• 9 years ago

Yes, I question every story I hear. This is known as skepticism and is a critical thinking skill in a world filled with people writing articles with agendas.

jpatokal• 9 years ago

One point not mentioned in the article, but obvious from the photo: her natural hair is black, and the blonde hair was also dyed.

czechdeveloper• 9 years ago

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.

dagenleg• 9 years ago

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.

lucozade• 9 years ago

It's most probably a placed piece.

It's unlikely that it's coincidental that the article is a diversity story about someone who runs a company in the diversity field in a news outlet that is currently running a diversity campaign. Also, sexism in SV is topical so her coming from the Bay area probably helped.

I might be being too cynical but I doubt it. I mean, it's the BBC. They hardly needed to cross the Atlantic to find blonde women who dye their hair to avoid unwarranted attention. In fact, I know a Swedish lady, who worked for the BBC for a while, who does this regularly.

notjesse• 9 years ago

Not necessarily. My mother is a natural blonde and her roots come through similarly.

If you do a quick google, you will see there are many natural blondes with this issue for a variety of reasons.

api3• 9 years ago

My 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 or more prominent chins land more deals.

I find this stuff profoundly depressing. We are not really intelligent beings, just clever apes.

hasenj2• 9 years ago

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).

api3• 9 years ago

Oh sure you can hack these things. That's why the woman in the article dyed her hair brown and got glasses.

It's depressing that it's necessary. If two people present something to me I should be evaluating the something, not the shoulder girth of the people presenting it. But inside my head there is a monkey that doesn't know what geological epoch this is.

tomp• 9 years ago

Prejudices? I don't understand why you find it surprising or depressing that people treat those they're attracted to better. Even in professional settings, "personality fit" is often placed very high. Inasmuch as being friendly and being attractive are both equality irrelevant to getting things done, and both make people feel better around you and hence like you more, they're pretty much equivalent.

Dole0Bob• 9 years ago

"Links for the intellectually curious, ranked by readers."

This link does not seem to target the intellectually curious, nor does it seem to be picked by a ranking algorithm.

executesorder66• 9 years ago

I sometimes upvote crap articles, because I'm interested in what HN has to say about the topic.

johncoltrane• 9 years ago

I wear a shirt to be taken more seriously at work.

jasonm23• 9 years ago

I put my pants on.

donquichotte• 9 years ago

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.

mdekkers• 9 years ago

Yeah, 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.

fimdomeio• 9 years ago

This 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.

feelandcoffee• 9 years ago

It 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.

lifeisstillgood• 9 years ago

My take - someone willing to modify their hair to find a route to success is also likely to modify other aspects of their behaviour and strategy to find a route to success.

Sad it has to happen this way but unlikely to stop this individual

‘I dye my hair brown to be taken more seriously at work’

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