DAVID J. writes:

Good day! While perusing the CNN website recently, I came upon a nearly cheesecake photograph of Marissa Mayer, the current CEO of Yahoo! The picture, intended for this spread in Vogue magazine, immediately reminded me of the following maxim by the late Lawrence Auster.

When men occupy a high office, it is for the purpose of doing a job. The job comes first. When women occupy a high office, it is for their self and their vanity. Public boasting about their “power” comes first, along with displays of themselves.

It is astonishing that Ms. Mayer devotes so much time seeking attention about her position and marketing her attractiveness.  Feminists consider it a victory that a woman has ascended atop the corporate world, especially in the hyper-competitive field of high technology.  Feminism states that women are more than mere sexual objects and can do everything that men can do (and equally as well).

However, what amazes me about Ms. Mayer is that, despite her reputable academic accomplishments and immense merits in Silicon Valley, she still apparently places her sexual beauty at center stage.  It wasn’t enough that she had excelled in a male-dominated subject at Stanford.  Nor did it suffice that she had deservedly climbed the ladder at high-tech behemoths like Google and Yahoo!.  In order to feel complete (methinks), she has to play up her good looks and sex appeal.  It is almost as if, beneath the dogged determination towards career success, there is still that wishful teenage girl who longs (or prefers) to be a princess or supermodel and admired as such.  As soon as the chance finally presented itself, Marissa Mayer took it with gusto and glee.  Her duties as chief executive officer seem secondary, almost a means to an end.

Perhaps I am being too unfair as Silicon Valley is known for its quirky, eccentric founders and executives, and I don’t want to appear anti-female.  Nevertheless, rarely does one find such a suggestive photograph of a male captain of industry.  No?

Laura writes:

Thank you for writing.

You write:

It is astonishing that Ms. Mayer devotes so much time seeking attention about her position and marketing her attractiveness.

Well, what would you expect her to do? Of course, she’s using her attractiveness and the novelty of her position to seek attention. She is doing her job. I am sure that’s partly why she was hired though, of course, it would never be openly stated. She would be remiss in not fulfilling these expectations. She is doing her job. An attractive woman CEO who gets seven-page spreads in Vogue and her photo on the cover of Forbes is a public relations success story, all the more so if she is working in the masculine world of technology. Everyone wants to look at an attractive woman and everyone wants to take a sip of this phenomenon of the Vitalist Woman. She’s an idol who is walking proof that nature can be defied. Male and female are trivial categories. This is an intoxicating message and so we constantly see these women in the news. The Vitalist Woman is addictive; it’s bread and circuses for the exhausted masses. Mayer, who ordered that employees are no longer permitted to work at home, is controversial too, which is good because that draws attention to the company. Yahoo has gotten loads of free advertising. Also, it helps for a tech company to have a visible female figure. Then it can feel free to hire lots of male tech employees without incurring the wrath of feminists and lawsuits for discrimination, which is a constant concern for any sizable company. This is basic marketing and business self-interest. As for Mayer’s dazzling achievements, I’m sure she’s very talented but I suspect grade inflation. Look at this quote in the Vogue article:

I really like even numbers, and I like heavily divisible numbers. Twelve is my lucky number—I just love how divisible it is. I don’t like odd numbers, and I really don’t like primes. When I turned 37, I put on a strong face, but I was not looking forward to 37. But 37 turned out to be a pretty amazing year. Especially considering that 36 is divisible by twelve!

Every article about her assures us that she is super, super smart. Perhaps she was just mind-blowingly tired when she said this.

The saddest thing is that many women who attempt to mimic her legendary vitality will find the whole paradigm blow up in their faces and that the company is just a company. Working all night when you are eight months pregnant may sound like fun, but it is quite irresponsible and selfish.

— Comments —

Buck writes:

Marissa Mayer (photo nine here) says gender doesn’t matter if you have a passion for what you do. “I’m surrounded by all kinds of other people who are just as passionate and that passion is gender neutralizing.”

What a stupid statement, from such an apparently brilliant …”person.” “She” is a gender, the feminine counterpart to the masculine “he.” Marissa Mayer is of the female sex. If she is surrounded by all kinds of “gender neutral” people…well, what a creepy place it must be. I wonder … is she a “liberal”?

 Paul writes:

Her hypocrisy is illustrated by her history and stated values, God, family, and Yahoo.  Now let’s see.  She did not get married until she was 34, after being a high-level executive for Google, and chose not to get pregnant until she was 36 (well into the danger zone for the little ones) just before? she was selected as Yahoo’s boss.  And she spent Yahoo’s money to erect a personal child-care room for the little one at her office while yanking teleworking women, with children no doubt, back into the workplace without sharing her child care room.  I don’t see God or family anywhere.

I see a career-driven woman who now wants it all before it is too late.  No doubt she has a golden parachute, unlike the gumps she dragged back into the office.  She imposed her male child with the pretentious first name Macallister.  Is that Biblical?  No.  Mack is a Gaelic name, nice enough, but where is God?  It is a sickening vision of our liberal society.

Your reasoning for her selection, to avoid discrimination claims, is sound.  Assuming that was the reason, Yahoo must have an awful human resources department and have had defiant predecessors who did not listen to their lawyers.  Most discrimination claims are a direct result of those two weaknesses.

I use Yahoo or AltaVista (same engines I understand) because it is not the liberal Google.  I did that before her Ms. Dazzle became the boss.  But Yahoo is still not as good as Google, which I must use when Yahoo does not produce.

She won’t last.  I suspect the glamour photos are desperation.  Her hypocrisy could not rise any higher.  But she does not care because she has money, and you can bet her husband has at least as much money.

And she is not even beautiful.  She might have been at one time, but no more.  She needs to cut her hair.

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