If I could bring back the downvote button for one day and could only give out one downvote, it would be for this immature post.
The fact is that it's a terrible photo. Deal with it. Nobody's demeaning her personally in any way, shape, or form.
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Apple Public Relations Vice President Katie Cotton to Retire
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If I could bring back the downvote button for one day and could only give out one downvote, it would be for this immature post.
The fact is that it's a terrible photo. Deal with it. Nobody's demeaning her personally in any way, shape, or form.
Yes, but adults should be adults. Of course most of the posters here are not adults, so I cede your point.
And hypersensitive hand wringers will be hypersensitive hand wringers...
I am an adult. Being an adult allows one to be able to recognize both someone's physical attractiveness (which is almost always a by-product of the mind and soul behind the eyes, BTW) and their competence, and still realize that neither of the two enhance or diminish the other. Any implication that I, as an adult do not possess that ability is both incorrect and insulting to me.
Enough off-topic discussion on this subject for me. Congratulations on your well-deserved retirement, Ms. Cotton.
Yes, and it's probably part of our nature to discriminate against people that don't look like us too, but that doesn't make it right to do. Try to put yourself in the position of a woman in the work force. Especially an attractive woman. Would you want people to pay attention to your accomplishments or the fact that you look hot in that dress.
And yes, it is not a good photo. But I didn't see anyone saying that it's a shame that Tim Cook's photo is bad because he's a good looking guy. Or better yet, Craig's photo since he is physically attractive. On those stories people focus on what they did, not on how they look. And even when there is a bad photo, most of the posts are still about the content of the story and not on the photo.
That double standard is what I'm talking about. Even when we are on a tech blog we can't seem to focus on a person's ability instead of their appearance when they are a woman. Maybe you can just shrug it off, but to me, biology or no, it is still wrong.
And I'm done posting about this because people who can't see it, can't see it. It's like my mother-in-law who claims she's not a racist and then says "I met a man last week. He's Jewish, but he's very honest."
With all due respect, shallow and superficial is still shallow and superficial. It isn't "hand wringing" to call someone out on it.
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Agreed.
And with all due respect one dimensional knee jerk liberal self loathing is still one dimensional knee jerk liberal self loathing. Please, show me the place where the OP was shallow and superficial. Perhaps I don't possess your ability to read between the lines.
Actually that is EXACTLY what I've said several times on this site and others.
I do want to make one final post before I close out on this. My initial post was over the top and perhaps premature and possibly a little immature.
I'm just so very frustrated that in America in 2014 we are still dealing with things like the Sterling issue to just cite one recent event. I am a middle-aged white male and have not been the subject of discrimination, and yet I want to invoke my inner Rodney King ("Can't we all just get along?") I just thought that by now we could all be past this, but apparently not.
I so much want the world to be a place where people can just be judged by what they do and not by their skin color or attractiveness. So, my response was more to a number of events that have happened recently rather than this particular story. And if if offended anyone, I openly apologize for being overly sensitive to this issue and over-reacting.
I'm just so very frustrated that in America in 2014 we are still dealing with things like the Sterling issue to just cite one recent event. I am a middle-aged white male and have not been the subject of discrimination, and yet I want to invoke my inner Rodney King ("Can't we all just get along?") I just thought that by now we could all be past this, but apparently not.
I so much want the world to be a place where people can just be judged by what they do and not by their skin color or attractiveness. So, my response was more to a number of events that have happened recently rather than this particular story. And if if offended anyone, I openly apologize for being overly sensitive to this issue and over-reacting.
who ever took her headshot should be fired.
Edit: To quell all of the people that for some reason said my comments were sexist. Even though I didn't mention her gender or looks at all
Why this picture is bad:
1. It's a forced smile any good photographer can get a person to show their true relaxed smile and or look. Believe me I suffer from the same problem
2. It's shot upward just a tiny bit, which is never flattering.
3. The picture is too hard, too small of an aperture, or over processing. it should have been shot wide open 5.6 or 2.8 maybe even 1.2/1.8
4. ^ which is why there is some type of motion blur or focusing issues around the eyes. can't figure out what is wrong, but something is off
5. She's smiling in one direction and looking in another. Some simple composition could fix that.
6. I'd think that Apple would have better photographers at their disposal.
For the record she looks pretty to me, just poorly photographed.
You're 100% right. I came here to comment exactly the same. It has nothing to do with sex appeal, which is usually the sexist problem with comments about women in business photos.
I don't see where you have anything much to apologize for. It seems some people believe they are immune from criticism when they make immature comments about people's appearances. I don't understand why they would expect that.
It seems to me she was an extremely loyal and protective employee, just what Apple needed. Such employees are hard to come by.
SJ sure had an indisputable knack for hiring the right people!
SJ sure had an indisputable knack for hiring the right people!
Well, I was one of the really lucky ones. After the Macworld 2000 keynote address, I made my way to the front of the room, broke through the crowd of media reporters, and happened to get right up front, and Steve turned around...and I introduced myself. Got to chat with him for about a minute, told him about how I was VP of my local Mac Usergroup....told him about my Dad getting his first computer, an iMac...and about the various Macs I own, etc. He was impressed that I was 17 years old and in San Francisco for the Macworld convention by myself. I told him I was excited about Mac OS X (which was demoed to the public for the first time that morning), and about the .mac service which was introduced. All in all, it was really an experience to get to meet him, and something I will remember for the rest of my life. Probably the most influential and well-known personality I have ever met. It just took the guts of going up on stage and being in the right place at the right time. Nobody will ever get to have this opportunity again...I am glad to have met him while he was still with us.
.mac wasn't introduced in 2000.
Couldn't agree more! I don't get why anybody with a few million in the bank wouldn't retire and enjoy the good life without ever having to work another day in their life. I like my job, at times I even love it, but if somebody dangled even 2 million bucks in front of me I'd live near the beach somewhere warm laughing at everybody still in the rat race.
True. Though arguably the comment regarding her photo was irrelevant for the subject matter, which I hope is why people are calling them out on it.
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Totally, the two absolute worst PR problems Apple has ever encountered.
Maybe not the worst, but the most recent...
I am looking at Jim Federico and John Calabrese from General Motors that are retiring...
Could it be such coincidence...
hm...
Public relations is a huge grey area for Apple and it's not surprising there is a shake up behind the scenes, especially with new executive roles being filled.
Apple is one of the best companies to deal with once you actually get to talk to them but still struggle to make contact or disclosure of information as straight forward or as readily available to consumers as they should.
The biggest public relation issue being when there is a bug or exploit in iOS or OSX, the fact they exist is not a real issue all companies get issues and resolve them but Apple very rarely even acknowledges the issues and even rarer appolagises, to this day only time I remember that happening is with Apple Maps.
Hopefully with a fresh face will come fresh ideas and a more open and accountable Apple.
Apple is one of the best companies to deal with once you actually get to talk to them but still struggle to make contact or disclosure of information as straight forward or as readily available to consumers as they should.
The biggest public relation issue being when there is a bug or exploit in iOS or OSX, the fact they exist is not a real issue all companies get issues and resolve them but Apple very rarely even acknowledges the issues and even rarer appolagises, to this day only time I remember that happening is with Apple Maps.
Hopefully with a fresh face will come fresh ideas and a more open and accountable Apple.
I'm not even sure what your first sentence means. But you were the one that wrote "boys will be boys." So you really can't take exception when you used that as an excuse for your own actions.
who ever took her headshot should be fired.
Edit: To quell all of the people that for some reason said my comments were sexist. Even though I didn't mention her gender or looks at all
Why this picture is bad:
1. It's a forced smile any good photographer can get a person to show their true relaxed smile and or look. Believe me I suffer from the same problem
2. It's shot upward just a tiny bit, which is never flattering.
3. The picture is too hard, too small of an aperture, or over processing. it should have been shot wide open 5.6 or 2.8 maybe even 1.2/1.8
4. ^ which is why there is some type of motion blur or focusing issues around the eyes. can't figure out what is wrong, but something is off
5. She's smiling in one direction and looking in another. Some simple composition could fix that.
6. I'd think that Apple would have better photographers at their disposal.
For the record she looks pretty to me, just poorly photographed.
The photo (of the photo) is severely "zoomed-in" and then "cropped". Maybe MacRumors need to be fired?
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Gray area how? I ask seriously, not facetiously. To me it seems Apple is very explicit in its influence shaping efforts.
I think this exit was genuine and that she was not politely pushed out the door in a shakeup. She's been there 18 years and she probably has a different relationship with Cook than Jobs, not worse just different. If she's ready for a new challenge, at 48, this would be the time to start that endeavor.