The email I received was a criticism about the nature of the photographs on Trainers’ Images. The writer suggested that our images played to stereotypes. To quote: “It was interesting to note that images around problem-solving and decision making in the main feature men, images around coaching feature women, images around gossiping feature women and images relating to working late feature men.”
Good grief, I thought (or something similar) when I checked the images in question – it’s a fair cop. And it is. If you choose to interpret some images in a certain way they could show a gossiping woman, for example. And certainly the pictures showing decision making depict men.
But hang on, those images don’t show decision making at all – they show a complete inability to make decisions don’t they? What a terrible slur on the male of the species.
And doesn’t that image with the ‘gossiping woman’ actually show a really ineffectual male manager, prepared to act on hearsay rather than observed behaviour?
And when we get to “images around coaching feature women” things become really interesting. I checked back – every coaching image bar one, features a man and a woman and in each it’s not possible to clearly state who’s coaching whom. (They were deliberately set up that way.)
The way photographs are interpreted can tell us a great deal about the observer’s ‘map of the world’. Indeed, our own interpretations will tend to reflect our own expectations of the world. It’s a similar principle to the ideas used in the Witches of Glum exercise.
Look through our photographs again, by following this link. Personally I think the way we’ve portrayed women as bullying, but otherwise effective and conscientious people who have all the bright ideas and men as ineffective, anorak wearing, accident prone buffoons, who can’t manage time, their intrays or other people, or even decide, come to that, if they need an umbrella or not, is appalling. ;-)
Of course we’ve more to do to ensure a balance in our portfolio of images and we’ll always make sure we mix roles up to ensure, as far as possible, that we never categorise behaviours based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability or any other difference. (For the first two photoshoots, we employed an even split of male and female models ranging from their early twenties to their late sixties, from ten different ethnic backgrounds. And that’s not easy to accomplish with 16 models!)
There’s a point to be made here about the power and weakness of photographs. There is a weakness because photographs can lead to powerful connections that we may not expect, or desire. And that’s where deliberately vague images, like the abstracts we’re creating for Trainers’ Images can come into their own. By removing some of the detail, we can remove most of the information our brains need to jump to conclusions.
But there’s real power too in the fact that images will be interpreted in a particular way based on an individual’s inbuilt view of the world. This emotional connection can be used to provoke thought and discussion around issues ranging from equal opportunities and diversity through to management and leadership style, and even positive v negative behaviour. Take the working late thing, for example. You might view this as depicting positive behaviour – the conscientious employee. I see it as a negative image – depicting someone unable to manage his working day effectively, or perhaps a potentially damaging organisational culture. (I’ve worked in an organisation where I observed employees competing to be last in the office – but more about that another time!)
Rod Webb
www.glasstap.com
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