University of Georgia

Terry College of Business
 
 

The other morning I was, unfortunately, trapped in an auto dealer's waiting room, Geraldo Rivera on the television. Since several people were already there watching it, I could hardly walk in and tum, so there I sat, crocheting a sweater for my daughter and bearing witness to the unbelievable stuff they can put on TV and try to pass off as worthwhile.

Geraldo's program involved several previous young female guests who came in for a make over. The guests had all been on shows in which they demonstrated, in some way, shape or form, how rough and streetwise they were They were given professional make overs, including make-up, clothes, shoes and hairstyles. They were then presented to the audience along with a clip taken from the previous show on which they had appeared.

Aside from all the ridiculous assumptions inherent in the piece, what bothered me most was Geraldo's comments and reactions to the women. He repeatedly talked about how beautiful and sexy they now were after the make-overs.

Geraldo said that the point of the show was to show the women how different they could look and: see if they felt any differently, with an end toward changing their lives from being roughneck to more traditional people. My question is if his point was that the way they now looked better positioned them for Job interviews, jobs, and other aspects of life which could change their behavior from hoodlums to productive members of society, then what does beautiful or sexy have to do with anything? Besides, his responses gave the impression that in order to be acceptable as a female one must be one, the other, or both.

What does this say to their worth or that of females in general? Their potential? Their role as productive members of society? Their role in the workplace? And what, pray tell, does it say about those females who may not be society's traditional idea of beautiful or sexy, even though they are working, regular members of society?

I have three daughters. I think that it is ridiculous and supremely wasteful to view females only in terms of their looks or sex appeal. I am not bringing my daughters up to be sexy. I'm bringing them up to be concerned, involved, productive, contributing, members of society. If someone happens to think they are good looking or even sexy, I want my daughters to appreciate the fact that this is merely someone's opinion, which they are entitled to, but that it is an add-on. An extra. Not a goal to shoot for. I want people to look at them in terms of what it is they can bring to a situation, not whether they will be a nice-looking centerpiece or mannequin on someone's arm. I have taught them that they were not put on earth to be an adornment in any way, shape or form.

Things like this Geraldo show make it difficult for parents to get the message across that things like beauty and sexiness should be extremely low on their daughters' lists of priorities. Not only are those things personal, subjective and temporal, but they should also be irrelevant to their quest for acceptance as productive contributors to society and to the workplace.

What can we do about it? Put less emphasis on it. Check our thinking about it. Make sure we are not looking at females in traditional ways which downplay their worth as human beings. If Geraldo thought these women looked better positioned for jobs or workplace acceptance, then that is what he should have said. Not that they were beautiful and sexy, as if that is what they should shoot for in the workplace. I'm not saying to never tell females they are good looking, or even, if appropriate, sexy. I tell my girls they are beautiful all the time. But I also tell them how intelligent they are, how creative, imaginative, thoughtful, bright, hardworking and fun. I've done this from the time they were born, long before they could ever understand what was being said. I can't control what others do, but I could control my own actions, and I knew that a lot of what they took into the world with them would be what they got from me.

The result is that they know they have worth far removed from their looks. Their looks are in perspective. They know that their looks are not the most important factor about themselves. I wish Geraldo could have given that same message.
 

Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander, Esq., is an associate professor of employment Law & Legal Studies at UGA and a founding partner in BJD Consulting Diversity Consultants The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the Athens Observer.