infOpinions?

PRGirlz is a new blog from the women of Thornley Fallis in Canada. I learned of the blog while listening to the Inside PR podcast from Terry Fallis and David Jones.

PRGirlz.ca is a welcome new group of “eight Public Relations professionals working at Thornley Fallis Communications in Toronto, Canada.” The women will “bring a variety of PR experience from different areas: technology, entertainment, travel, corporate, financial, government and health.” More importantly, at least to me, is the idea of several women PR professionals writing publicly – and with comments on – about PR. My classes are frequently 80 to 90 percent female and they need, I believe, more professional PR women examples to learn from, too.

I am glad that Jennifer, Mary Ellen and Sandra have joined the “fracas” – as Mary Ellen called it. You’ll note that I can tell you the first names of three of the bloggers, but not anything about them. I hope the ladies will put up an About page with bios of all eight participants.

Here is where my one caveat comes in to play. I hope the women of this new blog will forgive me for bringing up this issue, but it concerns me. The issue? I’m unsure about how to take the chosen name of the blog – PRGirlz.ca.

Cultural differences, I am sure, exist between Canada and Alabama. In Alabama, it is not uncommon to hear a group of grandmothers, let alone young ladies, refer to themselves as girls. I imagine the same can be said for other geographic cultural practices. But, the term “girls” has, at times, brought down the rath of some men and women as derogatory – when used to refer to grown women. I guess it just depends upon the audience. Well, isn’t that always the case?

Even moreso, it reminds me of the MTV series, PowerGirls. That show was a travesty and did more to perpetuate the ditzy PR girl persona than any other – except, Sex and the City. Thank goodness the MTV show didn’t have a large audience and didn’t survive.

The term “girls” may serve to perpetuate the stereotype of “PR Bunny” that is too often applied to young women in PR. That term brings up images of vacuous little pretty girls as office dressing and shuffled off to perform clerical duties deemed to be beneath PR management, which is most often male.

So, I hope the writing and discussions at PRGirlz.ca will live down the possible unfortunate mental image the name may bring about for some readers. I hope the authors at PRGirlz.ca will publish an About page with bios and photos. Please let the photos be professional and not some fashion horse glamour shots.

To my students, I beg you, please do not ever refer to yourself as a “PR girl” at any time and in any way. You are, or will be, PR practitioners or PR professionals. Unfortunately, there are too many individuals out there that will react to the term “PR girl” as one of derision. There are too many contemptuous perceptions of PR and those that practice it. Why play into the stereotype?

I don’t know what to think about a blog named PRBoyz? Could Patrick, Jonathan, Edward, Matt and Jake, start one under that name? (Sorry, had to throw that in there.) They are my five, out of 25, PR students this semester.

I wish the eight women of PRGirlz.ca all the best and look forward to reading their posts – as well as sending my students over to read and comment.