Aug 27
The Sunday NYT was bulkier than usual yesterday due to its special women’s style ‘T Magazine.’ From what I could tell, it was 316 glossy pages of pure crap - 282 pages of which featured impossibly thin girls looking bored and hungry. However, after sifting through an insightful article on the latest eyebrow trends (strong and shapely), I landed on a piece on women in power and politics that was both terribly uninteresting and incredibly offensive.
The article by Daphne Merkin discussed the novel concept of how looks matter, especially for women in power positions. As a female, you’d think that Miss Daphne would be railing against the injustice that men with ass-faces are given a pass while women are skewered on a daily basis for not looking like 19-year-old airbrushed bloggers.
We study our female politicians as closely and obsessively as we do in part because they still remain something of an anomaly… we study their shade of lipstick, we listen for a note of defensive shrillness in their voice, we infer, we project, we accept or discount official positions for reasons that are neither fully conscious nor even rational.
Merkin’s main target is Hillary Clinton, who she slams for her “fallback position of mix-and-match jackets or trousers,” as well as her “generic mumsy earrings, executive-secretary suits and a bright, unconvincing smile.”
My GOD what an embarrassment. Let’s pick apart the first woman running for president based upon the earrings she chooses to wear with her boxy pantsuits. Merkin adds, “[Hillary] wears her clothes - whether the old frumpy style or the recent, more streamlined look - like armor, and for all of her newly flattering makeup, there is a grim determination that comes through, vitiating all the efforts to feminize and humanize her.”
Who cares about Hillary’s positions on healthcare and the troops in Iraq when the whole world wants to know if she’s had her eyes done? What do I care what she thinks about global warming and immigration when her body type “isn’t easy to dress at all.”
To be fair, let’s look at some of the male presidential frontrunners, shall we? (Let’s just say, they ain’t winning no beauty contests.)
- Joe Biden (obvious plugs, cheap suits)
- John Edwards (terrible crow’s feet)
- Barack Obama (put your shirt back on - you’re no Vladimir Putin)
- Bill Richardson (fatty)
- Sam Brownback (a face only Jesus Christ could love)
- Rudy Giuliani (so ugly even his own children can’t look at him)
- John McCain (looks like that dead guy from Poltergeist II)
- Mitt Romney (radioactive face, obvious porcelain veneers)
- Fred Thompson (Mr. Potato Head)
“At the end of the day - and at the beginning - what is clear is that Hillary Clinton doesn’t wear herself well,” Merkin concludes. Well, since we’re all about judging on the basis of appearances, here’s Daphne.
The trackback URL is here.
Pubic wig? But obviously a very big one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkin
PL, I feel your outrage. The sad truth about why women aren’t always taken seriously in political and business arenas? Because (most/mainstream) women snipe at and amongst themselves, typically picking the petty path of criticism instead of pausing to reflect on the less than obvious, which, in this case, is that politicians simply aren’t the world’s most beautiful people. This is why they’re not starring in lame-o rom-coms (long live When Harry Met Sally) or action films. And Law and Order always picks the more haggard looking men for its attorney roles, so Fred Thompson’s Hollywood creds don’t include hot body.
Oh, and I think you went way too easy on the male candidates. They’re a much more hideous bunch than you described. Plus, you didn’t include the current chimp-faced acting president (sorry chimpanzees) and his pasty, blubbery veep.
Sigh.
Re: 1. whiskeydent
That’s hilarious. And so nicely explains Ms. Merkin’s look. She was going for the obscure reference…
AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
If looks don’t matter , why did you publish her picture to make your point?
First impressions count , in all things. It’s human nature.
And pretty is pretty, and most peaople are attracted to pretty.
However , petty is petty, adn that is why Edwards haircut and HRC’s cheesy pantsuits are the fodder of the ‘media’…it beats really reporting.
We already know she put McCain under the table in a vodka drinking contest…Who else but HRC could go, uh, toe to toe with VladPutin?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674016/posts
PL, I would take everything she wrote with a grain of salt. How could someone that ugly possibly be able to write anything worth reading?
Totally. Not. Tappable.
Re: 2. Wallflower Jr.
Women snipe at and amongst themselves? What the heck are you talking about? We most certainly do not. You’re probably are just not color-coordinated today, right? ;)
Re: 5. SlowDownCowboy
Now, see. That makes me like her a lot.
Re: 7. Don’t Mess w/ Pink
IN fact, I’m not very well color coordinated today at all. And I hate watching women–and men–(and especially UT students with enormous backpacks) walk around in flip-flops–and high heels–and I have a hard time keeping that criticism to myself, regardless of how hard a worker or how brilliant a mind that person has.
I. Hate. Flip-flops.
Re: 4. bloggarian chant
I think PL’s point of publishing the picture was to suggest that Merkin might have a pot/kettke problem.
Re: 10. murmur
Or kettle.
Jay Leno says politics are show business for ugly people.
http://www.mcblogger.com
Re: 12. Huck Finn
Which is interesting since he’s a damn supermodel.
On another note, I think Daphne is a herm.
http://www.inthepinktexas.com
Re: 10. murmur
She’s bitchy and petty.
/pot? kettle?
//i always said i had a face for blogging
Re: 5. SlowDownCowboy
They’re both amateurs.
Re: 4. bloggarian chant & 10. murmur
Bloggarian, why can’t you just be like the rest of us and enjoy laughing at others?
By the way, I might never stop laughing at the fact that merkin means pubic wig. I wonder if she is aware of that fact…
…Must go google my own last name for hidden meaning.
Re: 11. murmur
/or kettel (one)
the girls in her sorority called her muffie.
Re: 16. amberbama
ohhhhhh……shucks …….oooo…k.
I’m sooooryy,
/no, really.
//I like your funny name.
http://thepineappleprincess.blogspot.com/
it looks like she gets her fashion advice from the modesty lady and probably has a crush on HRC and that is why she is so bitter about the earrings. I know I am super jealous that I can’t wear boxy suits for my body that isn’t easy to dress. or whatever.