Belinda makes me mad

I don't give a damn
Don't care 'bout the brand
Of Belinda's shoe
Oh -- she's such a foo(l)

So I've woken up the past couple of mornings early just so that I could read the paper before I got started on the studying. I've mostly been trying to keep up with the election coverage because I want to be able to make an informed decision when the time comes around. Unfortunately, I've mostly been greeted by the annoying image of Belinda Stronach almost every morning. And it's always accompanied by some comment about women in politics and underrepresentation blah blah blah. Inevitably, it's followed by a comment about people asking about her shoes.

Frankly, I'm irritated with the constant Belinda coverage. I have little respect for her as a politician, but that's besides the point. I see what she's trying to do (and doing a poor job of it, too) in that she puts up this facade of being a strong women (which she probably is, having lasted so long in business, though, admittedly, holding on to Daddy Magna's coattails), and moreover, one who is interested in solidifying a female presence in politics.

Here's the thing. Complaining that people comment about her shoes and her hair and her love life only strengthens the public's interest in these (non-) issues. That's not how you go about inspiring women to get into politics. And just for the record, it's not only women who are underrepresented in Canadian politics: it's young people and minorities too. Anyways, back to the issue. If you want to inspire women to get into politics, you don't complain. You be an inspiration. You speak out about the importance of diversity within the industry you're plugging. You don't complain. You be.

Take engineering, for example. Do you think we could raise awareness of female underrepresentation by publishing articles in the newspaper about how our male classmates think we're too emotional for industry (just a hypothetical example)? No. We talk about how we offer a unique perspective. We talk about how being female has nothing to do with engineering performance. We talk about how we don't even notice we're outnumbered.

And that's why she pisses me off. She's absolutely ineffectual and useless and there's a reason why we talk about her shoes, or wonder about who she's dating: it's because there's really nothing of substance concerning her that anyone could actually discuss.