The Army should use photos of “average-looking women” in stories about female soldiers, as opposed to women who are too pretty.
That’s the message conveyed in an internal email obtained by Politico.
“In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead,” wrote Col. Lynette Arnhart in the email.
“There is a general tendency to select nice looking women when we select a photo to go with an article (where the article does not reference a specific person). It might behoove us to select more average looking women for our comms strategy. For example, the attached article shows a pretty woman, wearing make-up while on deployed duty. Such photos undermine the rest of the message (and may even make people ask if breaking a nail is considered hazardous duty).”
The email was originally sent to two people, including Col. Christian Kubik, the Training and Doctrine Command public affairs officer who forwarded the email to all Army spokespersons.
“A valuable reminder from the TRADOC experts who are studying gender integration — when [public affairs officers] choose photos that glamorize women (such as in the attached article), we undermine our own efforts. Please use ‘real’ photos that are typical, not exceptional,” he added to the original email.
The Army and other U.S. military departments have been working on integrating women as per new requirements introduced earlier in the year.
Kubik sent a follow-up statement to the Army Times regarding the email.
“The intent of the message was to help ensure that images depict professional female soldiers as they are, and to ensure they are recognized based on their hard-earned achievements as members of the profession of arms,” Kubik said. He said that the email in question “was an internal discussion” and that it did not reflect Army policy.
