[Via Politico]  The Army colonel who wrote an internal email suggesting public affairs  officers use photos of “average-looking women” when they need to illustrate  stories about female soldiers has stepped down as the leader of an Army study on  gender integration.
Army spokesman George Wright confirmed on Saturday that Col. Lynette Arnhart  had agreed to step aside from the Training and Doctrine Command study she was  leading.

In addition, Wright said, Col. Christian Kubik, a public  affairs officer at TRADOC, was suspended for his involvement in the email  chain.

“In order to protect the integrity of the ongoing work on gender integration  in the Army, Col. Lynette Arnhart agreed to step down as the gender integration  study director,” Wright said in a statement. “Concurrently, TRADOC suspended  Col. Christian Kubik from his position as the public affairs officer pending the  outcome of an investigation.”

In an internal email obtained by POLITICO earlier this week, Arnhart wrote,  “There is a general tendency to select nice looking women when we select a photo  to go with an article (where the article does not reference a specific person).  It might behoove us to select more average looking women for our comms  strategy.”
In her email, Arnhart also said, “In general, ugly women are perceived as  competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get  ahead.”
Kubik, who was one of two people to receive Arnhart’s original email,  forwarded it to public affairs officers who support 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. Please use ‘real’ photos  that are typical, not exceptional.”  (continue reading)