Given how skewed my views are on almost everything, I am focusing on how Constance Briscoe is being portrayed by the various UK media outlets following news of her arrest by Kent police.
Ms Briscoe is one of the UK's few black judges.
We live in a virtual visual world where we are mostly judged by how we look and write,I have taken particular interest in caption photos which accompany the newspaper stories.
Without reading the ubiquitous headlines "High profile judge arrested" would you have married the images to the headlines?
With the exception of the Daily Mail and the Guardian, the rest of the photos depict a strained woman who could be the poster ad for Schizophrenic Anonymous. The disarranged hair, startled-rabbit-caught-in-a -headlight- look, sheepish smile, etc does no justice to the accolade of adjectives used to describe Ms Briscoe in some of the articles.
I would like to know what you think after going through these pictures.
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| The Daily Mail has a picture of Ms Briscoe tallying with most of our mindsets about how a judge looks like |
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| The Guardian also has a respectable picture of Ms Briscoe |
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| Channel4 News picture of "Top judge" |
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| The Independent's "independent" view of one of "Britain's few black women judges" |
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| The Telegraph's telegraphic view of Ms Briscoe, "high profile judge" |
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| The Time's timely portrayal of "top female judge" |
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| The London Evening Standard's standard view |
Unfortunately for women, it doesn't matter how good we are at our job if we're not looking good while we do it. I'm not familiar with the whole story of Ms Briscoe and her arrest, but I think that concept also applies here, as I think you have done. Personally, I think she looks fine in all of the pictures, but for professional women, especially minority women, you have to look "perfect" (or society's collective view of perfect) at all times.
ReplyDeleteIf a man had a picture taken of him with no makeup on and his hair being blown by a breeze, it would not have any significance. There doesn't seem to be much wrong with the pictures. She doesn't seem to be "strained" and certainly not "the poster ad for Schizophrenic Anonymous." I think that is society's expectations of women speaking through you.
Most of the pictures did not tally with "image" the general public may hold of a judge. Synonymous to reading an article about a US First Lady, then seeing accompanying images of a dishevelled lady, as oppose to a coif picture perfect image we would expect to see; our "expectations" of how she should look like.
DeleteFi Golden read today's Guardian article http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/14/sexist-stereotypes-front-pages-newspapers and here is a quote from the Guardian which ties in with what this article is trying to portray:
DeleteWhere powerful women were featured, the images were often unflattering. For instance, the home secretary, Theresa May, appeared as the main picture four times during the month, but three of them were the same image of her pulling her mouth down in an accentuated grimace.
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ReplyDeleteShe is a journalist
ReplyDeleteWell Constance Briscoe AKA supended Recorder is at court today lets see how it will pan out, it has also been alleged that she forge documents a very serious crime especially for a judge, 'what a tangled web we weave when we begin to decieve', no one really would have really question Constance about the 'abuse' she recieved from her mother but now one begins to wonder, her lying is habitual and a pattern of behaviour, she would throw her mother under a bus, her fellow black legal professionals and a man who has done nothing to her Chris Huhne, what did Mr Huhne do to Constance that she felt the need to encourage his very upset ex-wife to seek revenge, infact what type of friend encourages your to seek revenge anyway Constance Briscoe is Amoral and a dangerous person, she is very vindictive, believes herself to be be above the law and possibly mentally ill .
ReplyDeleteNo longer accepting comments on this article as this case is live.(Contempt of court)
ReplyDeleteWhen they come to Blighty and get power they assume they are in Zimbabwe or Bongo Bongo land they forget about our end zero system
ReplyDelete