Divas, Dilettantes and Sexist Double Standards

The word “Diva” is looking for warmer climates.  It started out as the Italian word for Goddess.  It migrated south to the opera house, as a way of describing temperamental singers.

Then it perched in the gay community where it was camped up to describe the hysterics of males or females.  Especially males dressed as females.

Then it migrated to pop music, where VH-1 used it to describe best-selling female vocalists.  Watching the latest pop stars elbow each other out of the way, it was clear the word’s sagging Prima Donna connotation had gotten a face-lift.

Still cold, the word flapped its wings and landed on its warmest spot yet—the pages of business magazines.

It’s everywhere.  Fortune magazine calls their monthly marketing columnist “The Direct Marketing Diva.”

Business Week called Office Depot’s chief of web commerce the “e-Diva.”

McGraw-Hill titled a book on women who pioneered the Internet “Dotcom Divas.”

A few years ago Mediaweek selected me as a top achiever in the media-buying business, giving me the award for Best Media Plan of the Year.

I was the deal.  Got a plaque and a four-color profile in the magazine.  But mostly what I got was respect.  From my bosses, my clients, my peers.

Recently, Business-to-Business Magazine selected a girlfriend of mine, a Public Relations executive, as a top achiever.

Only she wasn’t the deal.  Yeah, she got the plaque and the four-color profile.  What she didn’t get was respect.

Mediaweek called me a “Leader.”

Business to Business called her a “Diva.”

I got respect; she got snickers.

I got a pat on the back; she got a slap in the face.

I had clients reverently asking my opinion about their business.  She got clients snidely asking if “Her Divaness” had any words of wisdom she could share with the little people.

I was given my due.  She was given a tiara.  A gag gift from her own networking group.

My associates threw me a party.  Hers threw her a box of bath powder called “Diva.”  The one that advertises its “High Maintenance formula” for women inclined to hissy fits.

As the word “Diva” migrates to the warmer climates of mainstream use it still carries its derogatory roots.  In fact, “Diva” is the new trivializing label for accomplished businesswomen.

And yet it’s an appropriate word because it so perfectly captures the ambivalence we have towards tough, successful businesswomen.

By calling them “Divas” we get to recognize their achievements AND undercut their authority so we don’t feel so threatened.

My girlfriend should have been anointed as a great leader, not crowned as a petulant star.  If she had different anatomy she’d have gotten a different tribute.

When a respected magazine says you’re a pillar of the community you should get congratulated, not ridiculed.

The word “Diva” isn’t going away.  It’ll simply find a warmer place to roost.  I can only hope it returns to the stretch-limo, where it belongs.