An earlier email conversation with another blogger, I got to thinking about modesty. And the modesty that I've been thinking about has been Hillary Clinton's.
I told my elder brother that I wouldn't touch this issue with a 10-foot pole, but it seems impossible to avoid it. So let's start with the article that touched off the issue: Robin Givhan, a fashion writer (get it? her job is to write about fashion) talked about Hillary's choice to wear a sort of low-cut top to a debate. She then gave a run-down of Hillary's fashion history. Pretty standard, right?
That article has been linked to, by, at last count, 511 blogs. In the days that followed, WaPo alone had something like 7 articles about the cleavage (or according to Andrew Sullivan, the lack thereof), the coverage, the firestorm, the accusations, and the anger of the Clinton campaign. One of my favorites suggested that the problem is that Hillary didn't expose enough cleavage and compared her to a British politician who wears low cut tops and necklaces which show off her "attributes."
And then, Hillary's response: from HillaryHub, a campaign ad that says "pay attention to your hair, because everyone else will" with a display of her many different haircuts. I love it. Finally she shows a sense of humor, or at least her handlers do.
Basically this seems to me like a tempest in a teacup. Mostly stupid. Except that it does say a lot about what we, as a culture think about the sexuality of our female leaders. Mostly that we don't like it. And that whoever is dressing Hillary now is MUCH better than those idiots who handled her while Bill was in the White House.
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2 comments:
I think there were some links I didn't send you because they were too tasteless.
To counteract the cleavage press Hillary's getting, John Edwards should pose shirtless, with his chest oiled, like Victor Mature.
Obama basically did that already, running through the surf shirtless. Edwards will have to drop trou to compete.
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