November 22, 2001

8:24 PM

Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay® Cosmetics died today. It looks like they were anticipating it. Not only did she found what grew to be a huge company(in the male-dominated 60s), she inspired people to be successful. I was never a big fan of the pink Cadillacs, but reading some of this made me a fan.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow (11 comments total)

Pink cadillacs-- hoo boy! That contribution to pop culture, all by itself, should cement herplace in history . I assume (?) that her pink caddies were the inspiration for the song...?

And kudos to her for essentially creating a new market and a whole new attitude for women. Re: the anticipatory website -- who knows? Conceivable that they originally had it set up as a tribute without it being a death-type tribute, at first.
posted by davidmsc at 10:12 PM on November 22, 2001

I've never really thought much of the company, but this prompted me to do a little reading.

For this salon article*, Kristina Robbins went undercover in the Mary Kay organization to find out what the recruits were getting, "financially or otherwise, to maintain their high degree of loyalty and service". Her conclusions were that it was, as you said, an inspiration, as well as source of emotional support.

Robbins seems quite sympathetic towards the company after spending time with them but she takes issue with the Mary Kay philosophy because it's a "cowardly form of feminism".

Did Mary Kay's encouragement of women in business make her a feminist despite her 'God first, family second, career third' mantra?
If she can be considered a feminist, was her dislike of the f-word and emphasis on family over career 'cowardly'?

* yes, salon. move on.
posted by jheiz at 10:13 PM on November 22, 2001

Does my excessive use of "quotation marks" make my post somewhat "annoying"?
posted by jheiz at 10:15 PM on November 22, 2001

Can you get a Cadillac hearse in pink?

> Does my excessive use of "quotation marks"
> make my post somewhat "annoying"?

No.
posted by pracowity at 10:41 PM on November 22, 2001

>Can you get a Cadillac hearse in pink?

Yes.
posted by jheiz at 10:48 PM on November 22, 2001

davidmsc: I assume (?) that her pink caddies were the inspiration for the song...?

Yes. And in turn, she got the idea from this young man. It was too much for young Osama, and he just snapped. Mary Kay, and her pink caddy-enabled empowerment of women is at the root of our present terror.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 1:34 AM on November 23, 2001

Why? The universe robs us of Mary Kay Ash, but leaves us with Mary Kate and Ashley? It's evil, I tell you. ^_-
posted by SenshiNeko at 2:50 AM on November 23, 2001

Wow. I'm surprised to find that Mary Kay commanded so much respect. Everything I know about Mary Kay I learned from Bloom County strips...
posted by Bixby23 at 3:48 AM on November 23, 2001

Bloom County rocked!

Didn't Mary Kay stop using animals to test their merchandise soon after Berke Breathed did that, or are they still at it?
posted by ZachsMind at 5:33 AM on November 23, 2001

Pink cadillacs-- hoo boy! That contribution to pop culture, all by itself, should cement herplace in history . I assume (?) that her pink caddies were the inspiration for the song...?

Are you folks that young that you don't even remember Elvis Presley?
posted by MegoSteve at 9:05 AM on November 23, 2001

As for Mary Kay and her feminism, I can't say whether it was "cowardly" or not, that all depends on your perspective. What Mary Kay did (and does) was set up a woman-run organization that was open to any woman who wanted to give it a go. This gave the opportunity for the woman who might normally only be eligible for low-paying office jobs or cannery work or anything else that women do because no one else will do it for that little and enabled them to work their own schedule (so that they could juggle family -- perfect for the single mother) and work for women presumably more sypathetic and more able to offer a support system.
posted by amanda at 9:50 AM on November 23, 2001