Are the News Corp. women getting fair coverage?: Globe
In today's Globe and Mail, Judith Timson asks whether the News Corp. women — Rebekah Brooks and Wendi Deng Murdoch — are getting fair coverage from the media, or if they're surrounded by a bunch of negative stereotypes.
In today's Globe and Mail, Judith Timson asks whether the News Corp. women — Rebekah Brooks and Wendi Deng Murdoch — are getting fair coverage from the media, or if they're surrounded by a bunch of negative stereotypes.
She has a point. After all, as Timson writes: "It’s easy to reduce these to women to archetypes — but they are a far cry from the winsome newspaper cartoon characters that first captivated most women who wanted to shine in a newsroom." (She's talking about Lois Lane and Brenda Starr.)
Timson continues:
"Both these women have been portrayed as climbers and manipulators who have ridden to prominence on the coattails of powerful men. Yet conversely, they’ve also drawn admiration for being smart, strong-willed, focused, and in both cases, extremely competent at what they do. It is, however, precisely what they do that causes legitimate concern."
Too bad that legitimate concern is often overshadowed by descriptions of Brooks' hair.
Timson quotes one writer, “Her hair hung thick and loose below her shoulders like a dense tangle of vines. It was free and unruly; it was hair that had been released from any need to be controlled and tidy," concluding: "This is clearly prose that has been released from any need to be sensible."
So were these women reduced to stereotypes? Check out the rest of Timson's article, and tell us what you think.
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