Academic

Of Clothing and "Caribou Barbie"

By Laura Appleman

I am disgusted, but not terribly surprised, at the latest "news" story to pop up in the last few days:   that Sarah Palin spent $150K of Republican money upgrading her wardrobe for the national stage.  The mean-spirited glee and nasty condescending that this " breaking news" has elicited from the media--particularly the NYTimes, which ran not one but TWO stories on it today--is sadly typical for the MSM reporting on women running for office.  Let me expound on why this is so troubling.

1.  The obsession with how a female candidate dresses.  We saw this ad infinitum with Hillary Clinton, of course--the endless debates on her pantsuits!  The speculation on potential facelifts! The slide show of her hairstyles through the ages!  Yes, Virginia, people's style changes as their age and position in life changes!  Funny, though, how we never see such a retrospective on a male candidate, on either side of the aisle.  For example, I noticed Rudy Giuliani's suits upgraded dramatically when he ran for President earlier this year--suddently they were much higher quality, fitting better, etc.  But was there a NYTimes slide show and related article on that?  Of course not.

2.  The use of Republican funds to upgrade the wardrobe.  It's not illegal, right?  So what's the big fuss?  Joe Biden has been using his campaign funds and warchest for *years* to fund his fancy ACELA amtrak ride to and from Delaware and DC, and yet there have been few screams of outrage.   And Joe Biden is selling himself as a "man of the people," with his numerous trips to Scranton, Pa, as much as Sarah Palin is selling herself as a "woman of the people."  Yet because Palin bought clothing (though she spent far less on it that Biden's spent over the past 20 or so years), hysteria.

3.  "Caribou Barbie."  Can I just comment on how insulting this is?  Why it is that a young, attractive, put-together woman is punished for her style and looks, yet a woman who is older, less stylish, less traditionally handsome is also punished?  Can we at least stop comparing every stylish successful woman to a Barbie doll?  I mean, Obama is tall, thin, muscled, attractive, but we don't compare him to a Ken doll, do we?  The only male who ever got that treatment was John Edwards, and his $400 haircuts and obsessive attendance to his appearance didn't exactly help matters.

4.  Hello, we have TWO WEEKS until the election!  Mainstream media, are you seriously telling me that there are no more important issues than Palin's wardrobe upgrade?  Really??!!  Shame on you all.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).