Diffusing a stereotype

Last week I attended a conference that listed Kathy Ireland as the keynote presenter.  Let’s just say I was cynical at best and attended her session with my Twitter finger at the ready.  If you follow me on Twitter (evenanerd) you saw my comments as her presentation began.  She bounded on stage and began to speak in what can only be described as a stream of words punctuated by an endless stream of exclamation points(and probably more than one per word.) It was the kind of speaking that would be equal to third grade writing where hearts replace the dots over every “i”  and there are puffy exclamation points at the end of every sentence. I have no doubt that her notes were peppered with smiley faces she drew herself. 

Her presentation was preceded by a video that showed lots of model shots and magazine covers which made you figure we were not going to get a lot of valuable content in this session.  

She read from her pages of notes in a stilted and unnatural way with the excess useless energy of a cheerleader who hasn’t a clue that her team is losing.   

But that’s when it all began to change.  

She started making fun of herself.  She talked about her lack of expertise in addressing a crowd such as ours, talked about instead her expertise in holding the right pose.  And then she started to show some poses to us. She was letting us in on her joke.  She talked about her voice and how difficult it was to get taken seriously. She shared stories of how she had trouble ordering pizza by phone because of her voice (I imagine any pizza eating was immediately followed by purging, but I digress.) She told us how she had to persist for 5 years before her brand and successful business got featured on a TV show.  And she talked about her passion for the women she serves as customers.  And as her passion grew, she became real.  She turned that stereotype on its ear. “Yes I am beautiful, but I have something to say that might help you.  And I want to help you succeed like I have.  Because it wasn’t easy, even for me.”  

 She became one of us (a gorgeous, richer version of us) but one of us. She made us yearn to overcome our own weaknesses, to strive for more, to persist in our dreams. 

And slowly, before we knew it, we were on her side.