White

I write a weekly style article for That’s What She Said, Arwen Bicknell’s how to blog about management.  The hook for this blog is that Arwen ties all her excellent advice back into television shows or movies, offering easy to find examples of the work in action.  When she invited me to play it was with the caveat that I do the same.  That’s hard!

I do own a television, and I do watch television, but my taste runs to shows like Doctor Who, Top Gear, Big Bang Theory, Glee, and Little Miss Perfect.  These shows don’t usually have much utility in the management style in action arena.  Alien fashion is, well, alien to the workplace, and the only thing I can tell you about Top Gear is that all three of those presenters (Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond) are big professional-wear don’ts.

Yesterday I was researching for an article on hairstyles for women in management.  It wasn’t a cakewalk to find female management characters, but I was able to score five decent examples in half an hour.  Then I looked at what I had.  Five white women.  Well, that just wasn’t going to work.

A little more thought and digging, and I found two good examples of African American women in leadership positions on scripted television shows, and one African American woman in a leadership position on unscripted television.  (I didn’t use Oprah.  Oprah isn’t a boss.  Oprah is the boss.)

I looked at my work again.  Better, but still not what I wanted.  I couldn’t think of a Latina or Asian woman represented as management, or in a leadership position on television.   The closest I could get were characters on medical shows, but medical shows aren’t the best places to find real world style.

I started thinking about casts with good visual diversity.  The Office.  Ugly Betty.  Doctor Who.  Grey’s Anatomy.  Glee.  That Zach Braff show I dislike so much.  Firefly (may it rest in peace.)  Defying Gravity (another dead sci-fi show.)

And I started thinking about shows I watch that are so white they may as well be pickets in fences.  How I Met Your Mother.  Big Bang Theory (one stereotype of an Indian man does not equal a diverse cast.  I’m looking at you, That 70s Show.)  House (one stereotype of an angry, black man does not equal a diverse cast.) 

Obviously, it isn’t hard to build a diverse cast.  It’s been done and done well.  So what conclusion do I draw?  I don’t know.  I need to think about it some more.

In the meantime, if you can think of some Latina or Asian women in powerful positions outside of medical dramas, will you let me know?  Thanks!