Of course not, and neither is there a culture where men are not judged on their looks or desired for their bodies. And I don’t see why there should be: aesthetic and sexual evaluations of other humans are part of our human nature, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
However, there are specific social contexts in almost every culture where it is not considered appropriate to publicly discuss one’s evaluation of another person’s looks or desirability. And I think it’s reasonable to say that debating the merits of a Supreme Court nominee is one such context.
Anybody who looks at Elena Kagan and thinks she’s ugly is totally entitled to their opinion. Anybody who thinks that their opinion about Elena Kagan’s looks belongs in a serious discussion of Kagan’s qualifications to serve on the US Supreme Court is a pig, and a clueless pig at that.
Like Kagan, Rice was a plain women, but she was fit and trim, and was dressed about as fashionably and elegantly as her budget would allow. Hairstyle choices aside, her taste in clothes and accessories was impeccable.
Other than her being unmarried nothing about her (IMO) gave off a dykey vibe.
Al Gore’s fashion choices were the subject of great scrutiny during his campaign for President, and there’s an argument that Nixon’s five o’clock shadow hurt him in the race against the handsome Kennedy, but those are something of an exception. As far as Supreme Court justices go, Bork raised some amount of suspicion and mockery over his beard, but again looks are not usually part of the equation.
Sorry, but the only problem I have with those women is that 3/4 of them are butt-ugly. Yeah yeah yeah, they’re all strong and powerful, but c’mon, we made fun of Quayle’s ears. If we admire Michelle’s triceps and tasteful sense of style then we also get to marvel at Kagan’s triple-chin. And for clarification, Kagan is not “tubby”. I am 10 lbs overweight, I am tubby. Kagan is obese.
If people are saying her looks have anything to do with her abilities on the bench, then so what? They’re the same idiots who double park on a busy street during rush hour or who text and drive.
Sorry about that. I originally had both instances of the word “smear” in quotes, and took the first one out because it looked odd. After the original commentator congratulated the White House for nominating an allegedly gay person the White House itself called it a “smear”. After this there was quite a bit of online discussion about whether or not an allegation of being gay could or should be considered a smear.
My usage was in reference to the online discussion. I haven’t taken the time to think through whether or not it should be considered a smear. I suppose it in part depends on whether the target of the alleged smear would consider it such or not.
Looking up her picture before I read this thread, my first instinct on seeing her was that she looked gay (going by her hair). If it turns out she is, that can certainly be a factor in whether or not she gets sworn in.
While I’ll agree that the focus on Palin’s looks were partly caused by her being female, Kagan’s a different story. She is so far on the left of the attractiveness bell curve that this is something statistically noteworthy. When New Jersey elected an man who is equally unusually fat, that was made a big deal of and that equally made sense.
So yes, it is possible that women are unusually judged by their looks. No, that is not what’s causing the Kagan comments now.
I can only imagine the quagmire that would be searching for these threads, but there have been quite a few posts on this topic as it relates to Clinton and Sarah Palin (especially her in/famous running outfit photos). The problem seems to be being too hot or not hot enough. That’s about it. Ugly pantsuits, sexy skirts, frumpy colors, eye-catching colors, too much like mother-in-law, too much like hot teacher, too much make-up, not enough make-up, old-fashioned hair, butch hair, pageant hair, winking, smiling, laughing coyly, cackling, trying to be a man, looking like a harlot… I pity the stylists.
Hijack: Cat Fight, you know who always looks put together, and attractive without being distracting? Mara Liasson. My judgement could be biased because I think she’s an excellent journalist (I watch her on Fox News Sunday because her predictions are spot on a scary 90+% of the time) but her look is very, very good. I can’t imagine anyone could find fault with it.
