Break The Glass Ceiling

The Killer Inside Me

This intelligently 1952 written story is given vitality and suspense by its author Jim Thompson, what one might think to be initially limited, by telling the story from the first person perspective of Lou Ford the viewer gets a much deeper insight into the structure of this chilling tale. Lou Ford the protagonist could be described as the pillar of the Texas community, of which he lives and is the deputy sheriff of the police force this fact makes the way Lou is contextualized, his character and job title even more sinister and thrilling in the construction of suspense and intrigue for the reader. What caught my eye in this novel on the first page is the set up although it is a know trick to writer’s that you must formulate and sustain a pictorial view in the mind’s eye of the reader, the writer does this ease and in a subtly canny way.

In response to  a cafe worker who was concerned that a deputy sheriff like himself was not carrying a gun. His response is ‘Anyway, people are people, even when they’re a little misguided. You don’t hurt them, they won’t hurt you. They’ll listen to reason’. The irony of this keeps the reader within an appropriate naive mind set. The main character is a pretentious sociopath with sadistic desires, his battle with the past affects all areas of his present life in the book the way in which this character tells his story is matter of fact. And the social impact that this 1952 book must of had at the time must have been noticeable, the construction of the female where typical and unimportant the balancing of Lou’s sexual desire for Joyce and commitment to Amy Stanton does not distract him for covering his criminal tracks. It is clear at this time the writer did not want to make the book an intentional derogatory attack on women, but the ambiguity of Joyce’s character who no doubt plays a pivotal role in the plot leaves the reader to assume that she was a mere instrument and content instrument in fulfilling Lou’s desires. The book is not written to evoke copy cat violence, but the intensity of the filmed version The Killer inside me 2010 by Michael Winterbottom will add a small influence to the way that women are viewed. Having said that it is difficult for any reader or viewer to lose sight of the main character’s atrocious perception of the world and how he manipulated those around him.

social media and popular culture

The average teenager can create various personalities on the web before breakfast, the culture of convergence means that life has become a race to remain within ‘the loop’. Never before have young people had to be so alert to the on-goings of modern technology, without vigilance it is possible to get left behind. The woman a midst all of this is racing to keep up, as her identity has been constructed to want social approval and material satisfaction much more than her male counterpart. Since the arrival of Facebook and Twitter and countless other social networking websites their description and reason for addiction can summarized into one thought of the average woman that is ‘That last update was brilliant. Someone’s going to like it any second now..’ 53% of adult females use social media at least on a weekly basis. Ethan Bloch of gift marketing company Flowtown found. Connected with other forms of culture such as fashion, music etc. women are helpless to submit to the demand to want something quick and instant, spending on average (according to Ofcom and other research) 9.5 hours a day online,the era of new media technology may serve to perpetuate anxiety and indecisiveness as it becomes increasingly difficult to focus on one thing.

(Source: pamorama.net)

I’m not too crazy about power dressing

1. It is not desirable and women do not like anything unless it is even remotely desirable or socially acceptable.

2. You don’t get any further than the next girl  if you dress in such away, all you do is create and enter a world of pretense (your head is almost touching the glass ceiling and unfortunately you have not broken through)

3. Its not proven that men or women take you more seriously if you dress in a stern suit and the most ‘masculine of clothes’

4. By ‘power dressing’ you are conforming to a role the notion that power connotes and signifies everything non-feminine and ‘weak’.

As a feminist I just don’t like it, it does not prove anything and by dressing ‘normally’ you create a affinity with other women and set an example. No women do not have to dress like men in a professional environment end of.

(Source: MSN)

Body image and the workplace

It seems for females these two subjects do not coexist, instead in the context of work and the professional environment body image is disregarded, hidden under the mindset of a duty to fulfil one’s professional role at work. It seems as females we have collectively come a long way away from the pasts need to protest for civil rights, equal work for equal pay. The answer to the hidden question of whether female body perception really gets in the way of work progression is to look at the long standing influence of culture. Evolutionary psychologists claim that there is a natural inclination (to ensure survival) that makes women have the will and desire to appear attractive to a mate. It is not only this natural desire within women that reinforces stereotypical female behaviour, fashion has become a permanent fixture throughout the world and the introduction of styles such as the dolly bird look and various forms of make-up and social conditioning are what created body image and maintains it. Lauren Fritsch the founder and CEO of coaching collective has said ‘We need to rethink what success is, because success is different for a male CEO and a female CEO’.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to escape the brush with which women have been tarnished with for many decades, the ideology that women desire a man to look after them or even appreciate the efforts we go to look pretty. It seems time has proven for women that we are as intelligent or even more so than men, but there still seems to be this subtle almost non-existent feeling that how women perceive and present themselves in a office or professional environment will always affect how they are treated in a world that remains dominated by men.