My Look Does Not Define Me...Part 2

Today as we delve deeper into my unconventional "lawyer" look, I want to discuss Aileen McColgan one of my Professional Role Models.

I read her Discrimination Law textbook for my masters degree - very easy to read, utterly engaging, extensively in-depth, hefty text. As I read it, I wondered, "What type of woman had this much time on her hands to do this much research, sit down and channel that into a very comprehensive, analytically balanced but gender persuasive textbook on Discrimination Law?" No doubt it was one course I latched onto because, it's Discrimination Law and you're a woman, a black woman, a black single woman. That title just elicits discrimination from every corner. I responded to the words of her text as if she was fighting the good fight for us discriminated subjects everywhere. 

At the end of the course, I looked her up and Google revealed how pretty she is. To me, she's actually quite stunning. You think textbook writer, you just don't see a stunningly beautiful woman like this, you imagine something else, something that fits into the stereotype of bookworms. She is not that stereotype. She's pretty and smart, further elucidating the fact that you can be pretty and smart. You can also be smart and not look the part. People expect smart people to look a certain way, reserved, conservative, sheltered, with absolutely no knowledge of fashion, because they've spent all of their time reading and writing books. That's creating a stereotype, a false image, a perception of what smart people are supposed to look like and once they don't, they get confused. Who says you can't be pretty and smart? Who says you can't be smart, pretty and edgy? As you read the law textbooks, you also flip through the fashion magazines to get a breather, a flair for what real life looks like beyond the textbooks just in case you might be expected to live in it.

For me, I always like the element of surprise. I may look this way, platinum braids and all, so if you underestimate what I'm about, then you're never gonna see me coming, and that way you're not prepared, thus opening me up to capitalize on your weakness.

The most disarming tool in a professional setting is to meet a woman who's not only pretty, gorgeous, stunningly beautiful but has got an intelligence factor that she can work as a manipulative tool. It works. It works every time.