[Fashion passion: Mayer and a Naeem Khan design]
Is it sexist for me and other reporters to focus on fashion choices by female executives? Join the debate, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your reply; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
As shares of Google rise anew, and newspaper stocks tumble, here's where a lot of the search engine giant's profits are going: Straight into top Google executive Marissa Mayer's closet. The 32-year-old fashionista is one of the most high-profile players in a new generation of ultra-wealthy San Francisco-area technologists, now giving papers a fight for their lives.
The Wausau, Wis., native's taste for high fashion is legendary. Even so, it was pretty amazing -- and more than a little tacky -- to see so much free-spending on display when The Wall Street Journal on Thursday drew Mayer and her extensive clothing collection out of the closet of her luxe San Francisco penthouse. Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, shares something in common with Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw. They both love Manolo Blahnik footwear (below, sandals, in a Plexiglas case).
Is it sexist for me and other reporters to focus on fashion choices by female executives? Join the debate, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your reply; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.[Photos: WSJ]
You know what??? I like Marissa. She is smart, savvy and knows her way around the business, the BS and the politics. It is her prerogative to buy, or not buy, wear or not wear, be geeky or dress like a princess.
ReplyDeleteI seriously care about what she is doing. If she chooses to wear a cute outfit, that it cool too. Get over it! Those clothes issues are fluff. Maybe it would be better to simply listen to her ideas? Ohhh... but listening takes time and an open mind.
On a side note, I liked the dresses each and every time!
Oh, please. Why do we media types feel compelled to analyze the closets of powerful women? Is this news? And isn't this sexist?
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing: Why would she give us a peek into her dressing room? I don't get it.
To Anon@8:03 p.m. I guarantee I would have posted on a male Google executive if he had, say, flaunted his collection of high-performance cars -- or Savile Row suits.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it IS news to see what's happening to all the money that once flowed through the newspaper industry. And, finally, for the life of me, I can't understand why Mayer would show off such spending at a time when Google has been, I believe, laying off employees at its recently acquired DoubleClick subsidiary. It's all in such bad taste, no?
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI'm a strong believer that there are certain qualities necessary for survival in the future... we need youthful-thinking, technology-savvy, visionary people... people who have ideas for what the internet can be and find ways of making it happen... not just making use of what's currently available.
It seems like most of the execs at very successful Google, Yahoo, etc., are all in their low-30s or younger – or at least think like people in their low-30s or younger. All of our failing newspaper chain execs I'm thinking are significantly more "mature."
Do you think for media companies these days there's a correlation between age and success?