Reddit mentions of Management Mess-Ups: 57 Pitfalls You Can Avoid (And Stories of Those Who Didn't)

I'm honestly surprised you've risen to the point of almost being a VP level and you still avoid office politics the way you are doing. I suspect you have a slanted view of it, similar to how I did when I was younger. What changed my opinion of it was reading this book which I stumbled across while waiting to pay for some copies at Kinkos. It's a very short book but full of good information.

I used to have an extremely negative view of office politics (both because of things that had happened to me and to my father), but after reading the section about office politics in that book I realized my negative view of it was because I had been taught not to partake, and then I was getting upset when I got none of the benefits. To use an analogy, it was like I was standing on a corner watching people play craps and then when the game was over and everyone left I was upset because I didn't win anything. Well yeah, that's gonna happen if you don't play the game. What I had to learn was that there are things to be gained from office politics. Not just financial resources and friendships, but resources your team needs. Sometimes you have to hustle a little bit to get your team the resources they need to blossom and grow. You have to focus on the positive.

If this person feels threatened by you she's not going to go away because you want to be friendly or avoid her. That doesn't mean you have to go all gung ho and get nasty, but the reality of upper office politics is learning how to stand your ground and do it while smiling in their face (and it's not being fake if behind the smile you're being totally sincere about defending yourself).

As others here have said, the two key points are to (a) make a note of what qualities of yours she's trying to put down and capitalize on opportunities to show they're excellent qualities, and (b) make a note of her weaknesses and capitalize on opportunities to tease her for them. If you can do either (or both) in ways that get other people to crack a smile - or even better, laugh - then you will be doing just fine for yourself.