Snapshot Chronicles

Susan Getgood's personal blog

From my bookshelf

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The TV in my exercise room isn’t working. More accurately, either the TIVO or the cable connection is malfunctioning because I can watch DVDs but not broadcast. So, I’ve been reading while on the treadmill instead.

Which means I finally got around to two books that have been sitting on my shelf for ages, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell and Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton.

One of the reasons I like Gladwell’s books is that he focuses on a single point, and illustrates it in a number of ways.  As opposed to some business books that seem to  introduce more themes than there were animals on the ark, but then skim over the all important proof.

Outliers argues that the rags-to-riches tale in which the supremely talented overcome impossible odds to succeed is built on a faulty assumption that the individual did not benefit from any special advantages. There’s a strong element of being in the right place at the right time in his success stories, but overall it provides a strong argument for those who favor nurture in the nature/nurture argument. It’s also a fast, satisfying read, which is not something we can say about every business book on our shelf.

While I am sure that President Clinton wrote Giving out of a desire to motivate the public to acts of philanthropy, it also serves as an excellent primer on philanthropy in the United States, both domestic and internationally focused. If you are interested in the non-profit world, start with Giving, and then move on to some of the other books Clinton references in the text.

You might also want to check out events like August’s Social Good Conference sponsored by Mashable, although I have profound differences of opinion with the Humane Society of the United States, one of the charities supported by the conference. (If you are interested, the bottom line is: HSUS is a lobbying organization devoted to the eradication of pet animals in the US. None of the funds it raises goes to support animals. Just about every cent goes to support  lobbying. Want to support animals? Donate to your LOCAL humane society or breed rescue organization.)

Here’s a list of stuff  I have pending to review, and Lord help me , this blog isn’t even that well known although its sister Marketing Roadmaps has a small following and is the reason for most books I get offered. Some of these things will end up there or on Roadtrip, my travel blog. Disclosure: all the stuff in this list was sent for free, for possible but not promised review. Most of the stuff I review on my blogs however (Like Outliers and Giving) I purchased myself.

  • Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese
  • A bunch of books including Online Public Relations by Phillips & Young; Public Relations and the Social Web by Rob Brown; Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel and The Truth about Trust in Business by Vanessa Hall. Note: all these publishers asked for interest before sending the book and I said I hoped to get to it. If that was good enough, send away!
  • The screener for Drop Dead Diva. Yes I suck. Yes I intended to watch it right away. And did not.
  • A pile of unsolicited, unrequested blues CDs, received as a result of my work a year ago on a blues movie that never was released (and by the way, the production company stiffed me on the last month’s  fee which we are STILL trying to collect.)

Kids TV: Characters Parents Love

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Last month, I conducted two very unscientific Twitter polls about the children’s tv characters that parents dislike and like the most. I wrote about the hated characters on August 27th. This is the follow-up about the characters we like. Not surprisingly, there are some that appear on both lists, further proof that one person’s poison is another’s preference.

The top vote getters, with two each, were Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb and Spongebob. Everything else was mentioned once. Apparently, we often agree about the most annoying characters, but when it comes to what we like, our tastes are all over the place.

Here’s the list of single-votes:
Kipper
Little Bear
Curious George (with a shout out for the William H. Macy voice-over)
Ang (Avatar)
Dora
Handy Manny
Zack and Cody
Elmo
Sportacus (LazyTown)
Steve (Blues Clues)
Statler & Waldorf (Muppet Show)
The Count (Sesame Street)
Pepe le Pew and all the classic Warner Brothers cartoons
The Wiggles

I cast my votes for my favorites among the current crop my son watches — Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas & Ferb — but looking at the list, I remember Kipper with great fondness. I also would give a thumbs up to the Avatar but my favorite character was the Uncle.

Here’s a clip from Wizards that amuses me nearly every time I watch it.

Women are more than mommies: More Women

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crossposted to Marketing Roadmaps

I’m sure it will be a surprise to the mainstream media, but women are more than mommies.

Many women aren’t mommies at all, for a variety of reasons that are their business, not ours. Those of us that are parents don’t define ourselves solely by that role, even if we write a mom blog. And definitely when we do not write a blog about our parenting experiences. When our blogs are about other things important to us — our jobs, our hobbies, our causes, our politics, our opinions, our rants and our raves.

Our lives. Ourselves.

We find our identity beyond our motherhood. It may encompass it, but women are not simply wombs who walk.

But in the minds of the media and many marketers, women bloggers are mom bloggers. The consumer products companies reach out to moms. The media companies create opportunities for moms. Moms moms moms.

It’s a perennial frustration for women’s blogging community BlogHer, which works overtime to focus attention on the full spectrum of women’s blogging, but regularly sees the media hone in on the one segment. Mom.

Some — myself included — see this repeated reduction of women to our reproductive status as a form of sexism. Moms are about kids. Men are about the world. Moms aren’t serious.

It’s part of a cultural mentality in which a company can argue that lactation is not a condition of pregnancy, and dismiss an employee for taking unauthorized breaks to pump while allowing smoke and pee breaks. Isotoner/Totes, if you are wondering. That Danielle has a nice summary with links to other posts.

Bullshit.

But, you know, we are more than our reproductive organs. Media, marketers should pay attention. We’ve got disposable income. Even if we are moms, we do not spend every cent on floor wax, juice boxes and school supplies. If we aren’t supporting the Disney and LEGO franchises, we’ve got even more money to spend on stuff.

So, why aren’t companies reaching out to us in greater numbers? Why isn’t the media telling the stories about women entrepreneurs, women bloggers, women philanthropists? Grandmas and grad students. Women doing all sorts of things to make a difference in the world beyond just the genetic material we created or might create.

It’s been a refrain for years at the BlogHer conference. This year, the indomitable Grace Davis decided to do something about it. Something to call attention to More Women (than just moms.)

She’s created an online community called More Women.

Why is this important?

If you are a woman blogger, with or without offspring, check it out. We need to make our voices heard as women, not just as mothers.

If you are a marketer, pay attention. We will be heard, and you might want to be among the first to catch our ear.

Laugh if you will. I know the song is a bit hokey and outdated. But for many of us in Generation Jones, it was large part of our development as women and feminists. More than 30 years later, I Am Woman still says we won’t give up.

I am woman, hear me roar. In numbers too big to ignore…