I have spent the last week or so emailing press releases out for the launch of GreenFinder. Although we have been online a few months now we have never got round to launching and since we had the site revamped in December we thought the new year would be a good time to officially launch.
One of the local newspapers was interested in the story, interviewed me over the phone and arranged for a photographer to come and take some pictures. When the photographer did turn up, he gleefully told me he had a green waterproof in the boot of his car and asked if I had any green wellies I could wear for the photo. Now bearing in mind I had just spent ten minutes straightening my hair and even put some make up on for the occasion I was crestfallen that hundreds of people in Warwick and Leamington would see me promoting my website dressed like this. No offense to people who do wear green wellies and waterproofs but I do find the image quite a stereotyped cliche and yes they are fine if you work outdoors or in the countryside but I don’t, I run a business from my flat which doesn’t even have a garden!!
To cut along story short the photo was taken of me dressed in my normal work attire sat on my Lakeland compost caddy with my computer on my lap in the cold and rain (so much more natural) On reflection though I do think it is quite sad that people still have that ‘green welly’ image of people who care about the environment particularly as green issues are in the spotlight alot more now. One of the reasons why I love the ‘Green Girls’ logo is because it’s funky and refreshingly different from the usual associated image people expect. On a lighter note my friends found the incident highly amusing and although I can see the funny side now, I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has got any stories of peoples misconceptions about us green girls. The more ridiculous the better.
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January 10th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Ha ha ha! Kate, this post really made me giggle. Brilliant!
I know what you mean though. I don’t go for the tie dye or green wellie look either and that’s just my personal choice. I do, however buy fair trade and organic cotton clothes and from second hand shops and so although I might not appear to be a stereotypical ‘greenie’ most of my clothes are probably much greener than any wellington boot.
Having said that I had a negative experience recently when I attended a green / veggie market and went to buy some vegan cake from a stall. I noticed that the guy on the stall was much less polite (actually quite rude) to me than to another person being served before me who did fit that stereotypical image and I have been a vegetarian for 18 years! I can’t help but think that it was because of the way I dressed (I could have just been a bit over sensitive though) and left feeling excluded and angry.
This is a great issue to raise and I would love to hear others’ experiences too.