Bucks County Herald – December 14, 2006

Nicole Pappas

Dear Friends,

Good morning. Nicole Chrysanthi Pappas has been helping her father at his Quakertown delicatessen since she was six. Chrysanthi means ‘beauty’ in Greek. Years ago, when having lunch at Sunday’s [named after her father, Sunday Pappas], you’d find Nicole, her identical twin, Melissa, and her older brother Alex bussing tables, cleaning floors, and engaging the customers in animated conversation. The kids get their effervescence from their parents.

I recently had a chat with Nicole because she’s about to graduate from St. Joseph University in Philadelphia. She’ll begin graduate studies and pursue a PhD degree in Psychology. Nicole is a dynamo. When she describes her undergraduate work, her eyes light up and her voice rises in excitement.

Next spring, Nicole will graduate with a classical psychology degree and a near perfect academic record. In the process, she’ll have completed 20 psychology courses. But she’s found time to be a composer too, writing both music and lyrics. Nicole is a very busy young woman. She’s been a nanny for two families living near her campus.

But it was her research into human behavior that really caught my interest. For one semester, Nicole’s psychology class studied the objectification of self and others. The professor and students investigated ten popular, gender targeted magazines to determine whether men or women were more likely to object themselves or others.

The women’s magazines were: “Cosmopolitan,” “ Fitness,” “O” [Oprah], “Red Book,” and “Vanity Fair.” The men’s magazines were: “Esquire,” “G.O.”, “Men’s Fitness,” and “XXL.” Nicole says that periodicals containing pornography were deliberately omitted.

What Nicole found was fascinating. Women were 17 times more likely to objectify themselves, she said. The research determined that those women’s magazines encouraged them to be objects of [male] physical desire. “Not so with men’s magazines,” Nicole continued. The objectification of men was about equal to women.

Putting it another way, Nicole boiled it all down to this. “Women have bodies and men have minds,” she said about the study’s conclusions. Nicole was not encouraged by what the class found. “The more we women buy these magazines and the products they advertise, the more we become objectified,” she continued.

“It’s a real puzzle,” Nicole added. “The more that women want equality with men, the more we [women] perpetuate that image.” “Vanity Fair” is the only woman’s magazine that promoted both body and mind,” she said. “It’s a sad state of affairs.”

As she follows a career in psychology, Nicole will rely upon her natural communication skills. Fortunately she is gifted with language ability and speaks conversational Greek. In addition, she studied Spanish in high school and college. Her communication skills are just as apparent as her academics.

Nicole is very proud of her twin sister. Graduating from Weidner University next year, Melissa (known as Missy) is also an academic star and plans a career in journalism. An excellent athlete, Melissa holds the school record in assists in field hockey and is the team’s second highest scorer. “Missy’s been all conference for four years,” her mother [Elaine] proudly told me. The twins’ older brother, Alex is working on a teaching degree.

The Pappas family typifies the American dream. Sunday Pappas immigrated to the United States from Greece 35 years ago and became an entrepreneur. His brother Ioannis Pappas is the Captain of the 91,000-ton “Constellation,” one of the Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

It’s easy to understand that the Pappas children are driven to succeed. And it will be fun to follow their careers. “I’ll be an awesome candidate for my PhD because I don’t give up,” Nicole quipped.

In a fight, I’d definitely want them on my side.

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith