Safe travels and I’ll see you at BlogHer.

Thanks again so much for the support, contributions and hope to meet in San Fran!

Here are my thoughts on your thoughts:

“I don’t support the idea that a woman should evaluated on her ability to dress or how she looks rather than her ideas and how she thinks.”

I agree with you, but this is because I don’t find the embracing of qualities connected to our gender as being the same thing as what you say you don’t support. I see it as additive to the assets we possess, not a substitute, for our ideas and how we think.

I don’t read the suggestion as one that has to go as far as you take it in this graph: “It adds to the American Idol mentality where the next big contest if we are going to follow this type of theme would be “Extreme Makeover” with female candidates getting breast implants, liposuction or other plastic surgery to demonstrate that what matters is how the package is wrapped rather than what it contains…”

I really feel that there’s an in between. Over at The Moderate Voice, where I also posted this entry, a commenter mentioned Nancy Pelosi as an example of someone who embraces some of these suggestions in a way that doesn’t overwhelm her ideas or the media’s coverage of her. Here’s a link to that comment. I think that’s a very accurate description of the positive way the suggestions in this column by Nedeau can be interpreted.

In your last paragraph, you write, “The inescapable reality is men are not to blame for this, we are. We don’t support our own and it appears we are many times much more critical of other women than some of the men we point fingers at…Creating such a superficial scenario that women should meet as opposed to their male counterparts with grown women being called “girls” is part of the problem. If we don’t take ourselves seriously, who are we to condemn men who don’t…”

I don’t think in terms of blame – men and women make up our political system at every level – voters, candidates, legislators. We all have a role to play in improving the diversity in representation.

I also have had great experiences in supporting our own – and I know you and I have tried to do that over the time we’ve known each other, although we do have different approaches and opinions at times. The White House Project was an amazing experience of how women support one another.

I don’t read this column by Nedeau as coming close to reinforcing images that would force people to not take us seriously – not at all. But I also scoffed at my mother when she told me I needed to change my hair color or else no one would take me seriously. That was five years ago – I’m doing fine, with the same hair color.

The author of the column and I went back and forth on a number of points raised by me similar to the ones you raise. I do get the concern about undermining ourselves. But I also believe that we do not need to eschew unique opportunities afforded us because we’re women. And that’s why I say that each of us can choose how that works into our presentation of ourselves – whether subtle or not.

One last example – if you have time, read this article about Yulia Tymoshenko and her braid and run for president of Ukraine. I view this as a perfect example of how she used something extremely feminine to brand herself – and it worked.

So – I think there are opportunities to integrate such things into political presentation without negative image reinforcement.

I don’t support the idea that a woman should evaluated on her ability to dress or how she looks rather than her ideas and how she thinks. At 48 years old, if I were to run for office I would hope that voters would be more concerned about what I would accomplish than how darling I looked in my designer suit…

It adds to the American Idol mentality where the next big contest if we are going to follow this type of theme would be “Extreme Makeover” with female candidates getting breast implants, liposuction or other plastic surgery to demonstrate that what matters is how the package is wrapped rather than what it contains…

It’s directly counterproductive as to how I have raised my four daughters, and I could not help thinking of when Rush Limbaugh stated one of the reasons Clinton should not be elected would be that we would not want to see a woman age in the WhiteHouse. Evidently saggy unattractive old men are acceptable…

52% of those old enough to vote are women, yet look at how few are elected. The inescapable reality is men are not to blame for this, we are. We don’t support our own and it appears we are many times much more critical of other women than some of the men we point fingers at…Creating such a superficial scenario that women should meet as opposed to their male counterparts with grown women being called “girls” is part of the problem. If we don’t take ourselves seriously, who are we to condemn men who don’t…