The latest in Maoist Chic

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Laura writes to Kidist Paulos Asrat:

What do you think of Hillary’s look?

Kidist writes:

Hillary changes all the time. Sometimes she really is enigmatically beautiful. Other times she’s so dowdy. I think it is the stress. I don’t think most women can handle all the pressures she has. I think men thrive on that, the challenge of it all. It sounds mundane, but even simple make-up takes time for women to put on, and if they don’t put any on (or very little) they look tired, which is a negative for them. It doesn’t matter if men look tired. And one final thing, one expects a woman to dress attractively and colorfully. If she doesn’t, and coupled with a make-up-less face, the outcome is like what Hillary looks like in this photo. So physical appearance is more important for a woman than a man, and takes up more time and energy, and along with all the “serious” work they have to do, I think women have a harder time in the work force than men.

More reason for women keeping out of high pressure jobs. I honestly think they get overwhelmed by it.

Laura writes:

In the feminist view, this natural emphasis on a woman’s looks is unfair. There should be the same expectations of men and women. But of course most high-powered women don’t believe this. (There are exceptions like Sonia Sotomayor.) They try to look good; they even try so hard they exaggerate their femininity.

The idea that this emphasis on a woman’s appearance is unfair is ridiculous. It’s like saying it’s unfair that the oceans are composed of water or unfair that children are born without teeth. The first form of beauty we all encounter is in our mother’s face. Ever after, feminine beauty – even if our mother was not conventionally beautiful – is imprinted on our psyche.

Rita writes:

My mother isn’t/wasn’t conventionally beautiful but I have very fond memories of her coming to kiss me goodnight in my bedroom before she went on a “date” with my father. She’d have on a pretty dress, makeup and some heavenly scent and I would tell her, and mean it, “You’re the prettiest lady in the world.” There really is something pleasant about a woman who tries her best to look nice. I’ve felt for some time that Mrs. Clinton was trying to be as manly as possible in order to be taken seriously. During her campaign her voice even got deeper.

Mabel Le Beau writes:

It’s an interesting issue to compare the visage or outside appearance of Ms. Hillary Clinton with that of Ms. Madeleine Albright. Ms. Clinton is of my age group whereas Ms. Albright, like Ms. Margaret Thatcher is of an older age group in which liberal application of varied shades of lipstick absolved all signs of unconventional womanly appearance.

In my all-woman dorm floor in college, albeit it was a state agricultural college and the gal was studying animal husbandry, I never failed to be amused by the woman down a few doors from me who made a little rectangle of black kohl on her upper eyelid as a concession to ‘eyeliner’.

Of course, I was from the free-thinking ’70’s and refused to wear the scarlet of my mother’s era and even, the conventional 60’s women. If I wanted pink cheeks, I ran outside for half a mile; never failed to put a rosy flush on the face.

In 7th grade I once went to the teacher’s desk to talk with my very pretty math teacher, only to be profoundly dismayed at the ‘mask’ of pancaked face powders edges around the pale skin around her eyes meant to cover up crow’s feet, and the delicate blue-veined tracing on her tired eyelids.

As for men and women being photographed when the cares of the world rest heavily on their shoulders, the instinct is that it’s an honest portrayal of tiredness. I remember working as a nurse aide while going through pharmacy school. At some elemental or existential level, the head of an old woman very closely resembles that of an old man; sunken cheeks, wrinkled skin encircling deepset faded or sparkling eyes in bony thin-skinned sockets, and lined pursed lips. A slash of red and dusting of rouge and voila! a woman image on the gaunt elderly face! No matter the brilliance of haircut, it seemed hardly ‘fair’ that there was not that much difference betwen masculinity and femininity in old age due to natural imbalances of testosterone and progesterone/estrogen.

Kidist writes:

Feminine beauty is what it is. If we ignore it, it is to our detriment. I’m not saying that it should be the be-all of women’s focus, but acknowledging it saves a lot of trouble. Also, all women naturally want to look attractive (not necessarily beautiful). Even the Sotomayors have to excuse themselves by saying they have too much work to do. Men rarely give such excuses, which means it matters more to women than to men.

Laura writes:

There is nothing wrong with any woman saying, I don’t care about my appearance. It’s perfectly reasonable to not want to be bothered with all the work, and some are attractive no matter what they do. What is wrong is when women say it doesn’t, or shouldn’t, matter how women appear.

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