Pretty Women / Revolution in a Media Age

There have been comments on the web to the effect that Instapundit, as well as some of us lesser beings, have been misrepresenting the nature of the protests in Lebanon and elsewhere by featuring pictures of pretty women among the protesters. I admit a bias in favor of looking at pictures of pretty young women, and I suspect Glenn would too. We both married pretty, as well as intelligent and accomplished, women. In fact most males [and let's face it, most of the bloggers commenting on international affairs are men] would exhibit a similar bias.

There is also a systematic bias in the news media. Check out the pretty people reading the news, especially on FOX. I note that even the decidedly unlovely Imus over at MSNBC has started to feature the unquestionably pretty Contessa Brewer on his show. Editors in the print media are no different. They want to attract eyeballs, and nothing more reliably attracts the attention of male readers than a picture of a pretty woman.

Those who stage and cover protests are the same. A recent article by Ulrich Schmid in Neue Zürcher Zeitung described the "corporate nature" of the recent "orange revolution" in Ukraine. He wrote:

The 'orange revolution' in the Ukraine has shown that even political upheavals suit their image to the times. Unlike the members of the Solidarity movement in Poland, the revolutionaries in Kiev were not isolated. In bringing Leonid Kutchma's government to its knees, they were in constant contact via the latest technologies, and were aided by PR advisors abroad.

Only one group could keep up with the supremely self-confident Ukrainian revolutionaries: the Poles. Polish students came in hundreds to support their comrades, media consciousness written all over their faces....

The idea of giving the revolution a colour, like a product, was a total success. The Ukraine has witnessed the first 'corporate revolution'. Wearing an orange scarf was like sticking your tongue out at the corrupt regime. People who wore orange had a collective identity, exuding confidence. And everything that was previously orange – corporate logos, buses, street workers' uniforms – automatically became advertising. The modern revolution was chic: the mustiness of bearded demonstrators was replaced by stylish outfits, and nobody sat around the camp fire strumming a guitar.

Schmid also has an important observation regarding bloggery.

In November, if something happened in Donezk, people in Kiev knew about it seconds later. Little attention was paid to the conventional media. Since the murder of journalist Georgi Gongadze, the Internet has become the symbol of incorruptibility [emphasis in original] for Ukrainian youth. The state-controlled newspapers lied miserably during the communist era, and remain discredited today. Truth abides in virtual space. [emphasis mine].

Truth abides in virtual space! Nice, gotta remember that one.

Schmid also makes an extremely important observation regarding the reaction of the left to the unfolding events. He writes:

The coup was trendy, it was modern and it was audacious. But it was not anti capitalist. For that reason the European Left found it hard to endorse entirely. Purists criticised the liberal speeches of the opposition, their business-like tone, their heretical happiness, and most of all their good contacts abroad. European social democrats did not care at all what Yushchenko and his democratic followers were fighting for during the election. The only clear message that came from the disdainful and disinterested votes of socialists Prodi and Solana last summer was: don’t aggravate Russia!

When the revolution began, the Left identified a suspect right away. Its name was, once more, 'America'. Rather than seeing the insurgents as freedom-seekers or idealistic youth, the Left saw them as minions of the USA, paid agents of Coca-Cola or the CIA. The old hypocrisy of the Left raised its ugly head. Yes, this Left might have said, we subjugated ourselves at Bad Godesberg and professed our belief in capitalism in order to be re-elected. Nevertheless the others, those far away, the poor, must keep the dream of socialism alive. But this view fails to recognise that liberalism has won back its right to revolt.

Read the whole thing in English here.

One of my correspondents recently asked if I thought that there was an uncovered "gender component" in the recent spate of revolutionary movements. Schmid's article provides an answer. The protesters may not be disproportionately female, but they certainly are young and media savvy and they know that it is in their interest to prominently display young and pretty women in the vanguard of their movement.

In many ways modern terrorism is a creation of the media world. Terrorists have long known how to capture the attention of the media and have used it to their advantage. What is encouraging here is that the forces of liberation have begun to exhibit an equally sophisticated understanding of what it takes to succeed in the modern media age.