Just as the media finished trashing Harriet Miers’ looks, reporters-cum-fashion-police have started obsessing over special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s sexiness. Feministing has already pointed out how male and female public figures are held to different standards in the media, but the Miers and Fitzgerald examples shine a bit more light on the subject.
When a male politician is ugly it’s considered normal and no fuss is made over it in the news. But boy do we swoon when one comes along who’s even remotely good lookin’. We require our women to be beautiful, though. So when a female public figure shows up at a press conference and her fashion is sub-par, we're all over it.
I understand that making Pat Fitzgerald one of the sexiest men alive sells magazines. I just want to know why we're so busy insulting Condie’s coiffure that we can’t bother mentioning that Cheney started sporting his comb-over 30 years ago?
Contributed by Madeline Halperin-Robinson
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all we can do is call bullshit when we hear it. i'm cool with saying fitzie's hot (i have a mini-crush on him), but we need to put the smack down when people bash older women. remind them (exactly as you did) of dick cheney, rush limbaugh, newt gingrich, and all the other fat, ugly (even on the inside) bastards who pass for fuckable in our screwed-up world.
ahem.
Personally, I was much more interested in Miers' assistant. She had the most charming, ecclectic array of attire. And she seemed to look at Miers with a devotion I don't think anyone could have accused Miers' of giving to anyone she's served.
Aside from which, do you think Harriet Miers' necessarily chose her wardrobe on her own? MAybe she was dressing _for_ her assistant, hmmmm?
If you can't love hip and thigh hugging skirts with little flappy stuff flipping about at the bottom, I don't kow how to help.