 The Army should use photos of “average-looking women” when it needs to illustrate stories about female soldiers, a specialist recommends — images of women who are too pretty undermine the communications strategy about introducing them into combat roles. In addition, Wright said that Col. Christian Kubik, a public affairs officer also with the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, was suspended for his involvement in the email pending an investigation. He forwarded the email to all public affairs officers supporting TRADOC with the note: “A valuable reminder from the TRADOC experts who are studying gender integration — when [public affairs officers] choose photos that glamorize women (such as in the attached article), we undermine our own efforts.
– An Army colonel has stepped down from a study on women in combat after she urged military spokespeople to use less-attractive women in publicity shots, the AP reports. "In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead," Lynette Arnhart said in an internal email obtained by Politico. "It might behoove us to select more average-looking women for our comms strategy." She cited an ARMY Magazine piece which "shows a pretty woman, wearing make-up while on deployed duty." "Such photos undermine the rest of the message (and may even make people ask if breaking a nail is considered hazardous duty)," Arnhart wrote. She had been leading an analysis of how to bring women into new combat positions before agreeing to leave the study. A general accepted her exit "in order to protect the integrity of the ongoing work on gender integration in the Army," says an Army spokesman. Col. Christian Kubik, who reportedly forwarded Arnhart's words to fellow military PR people, has been suspended.