Savvy Women

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to begin with a confession: I’m not a huge Sarah Palin fan. As a matter of fact, I’m not even a small admirer. I’d be more in agreement with something that Martha Stewart said during a recent interview on CNN. When asked to give her opinion on the ex-governor of Alaska, Stewart called her a “dangerous” person.

During that same interview Stewart also said something I don’t agree with, though. She called Palin “boring.” I would have to say that John McCain’s ex-running mate is certainly anything but boring.

Her incredibly quick rise to fame (and now fortune) makes her a phenomenon worthy of study. She’s kind of the Michael Jackson of politics. She’s somewhat creepy, but you can’t take your eyes off her. And, like the late pop star, her notoriety is no longer based on actual accomplishment. In recent years, Jackson had mostly retired from performing music, but his legend continued to grow. That’s because all of us who made up his audience began to think of his real life as a type of weird performance art. Similarly, Palin no longer needs to actually do anything to be admired. We just want to follow her around and see what she’s up to.

Speaking of following her around, her Going Rogue: An American Life book tour seems to be drawing in worshipful crowds at every stop and has created a cottage industry for those interested in showing up at such events and making films of one type or another. I’ve included two of my favorite book signing videos here.

The first one is a production of New Left Media, a company owned and operated by Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll. Whiteside conducts the interviews, and his approach is to remain neutral throughout and then let the viewer come to her own conclusions about what’s been said.

It’s clear that policies and positions are of no importance to those Whiteside has interviewed. That’s because they support Palin for who she is (or who they think she is) rather than what she advocates. Such supporters don’t care what Palin thinks. They support her as a personality rather than as a policymaker. In fact, they make no distinction between the former and the latter. To use a word used earlier, it’s dangerous to confuse the two.

The second video is just plain funny. In it, “Marg Delahunty,” a Canadian comedian who is perhaps most well known for being a cast member of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, pretends to seek advice from Palin at one of her signings. The fact that Palin doesn’t realize she’s being spoofed speaks volumes about the Thrilla from Wasilla.

The American University in Cairo mid-year break is just around the corner. As a matter of fact, in a little more than a month from now, I’ll be on a five-week holiday. Most teachers use the time off to travel. Last year, I stayed in Cairo during the vacation. This year, though, I’m making travel plans. I want to blog this week about the trip I’m putting together.

One last thought before I let you enjoy this video: I find it amazingly interesting to see the beautiful country of Malta this way, through the eyes of complete strangers. Now, without further ado…

While doing research this week for possible topics, I ran across a reference to the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF), an organization I hadn’t heard of before. I Googled WSF, spent some time looking at its site, discovered that it was founded in 1974 by the great Billie Jean King, and immediately knew that I had my next Savvy blog.

WSF does tons and tons of good work, but I found their GoGirlGo! program to be especially interesting (and relevant, given last week’s post). The foundation calls the program a “primary focus” and writes that it provides youth with fitness activities that are designed to “combat the alarming physical and psychological health hazards affecting America’s young girls.”

Seen in this light, sports programs serve a purpose much larger than merely giving youngsters the opportunity to play games and have fun. Andrea Cherry, one of the GoGirlGo! coaches shown in the video I’ve embedded below, drives this point home when she explains how those she trains are “learning basic life skills.”

For those of you out there who were fortunate enough to have had the chance (as I did) to play organized sports while growing up, you know exactly what Cherry is talking about. Much of what I understand today about teamwork and healthy living (among many other lessons learned about a whole bunch of other things) can be traced back to those days when I played football, swam, and ran track.

The following clip goes into a lot more detail about the foundation, its history and activities, and the girls and women it has helped.

And finally, for those of you interested in physical fitness and its benefits, especially as pertains to enhancing one’s performance in the business world, I’d recommend that you read this article, which can be found on the “I Am a Woman” page of the WSF site.