A woman running for President of the United States could never look like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. She wouldn’t make it as a 4oo plusser, or even at 320, where he supposedly is now. That’s just the way it is and what Michael Kinsley wrote in a story on looks and presidential hopefuls for Vanity Fair.
“It will never happen, except maybe in a Melissa McCarthy movie,” he writes.
Even though she’s not fat, Hillary Clinton, if elected, will have a tough go of it. You know, being a woman and all. The media treasure trove of stories about her looks is downright daunting: From the famed pantsuits to her “hair overhaul” (thank you HuffPost), and the pieces scrutinizing the scrutiny of her looks, there is no end to it. A simple Google search of “Hillary Clinton and hairdo” elicited more than 7,000 hits. In January, for instance, US Magazine wrote a story on Hillary’s debut of bangs. Excuse me, they called it a “fresh set of bangs,” and described them like this: “the blonde political player debuted a shaggy, short bob with choppy, layered, side-swept bangs grazing her forehead.”
Much like a movie star, she’ll need a hairdresser and really nice clothes. But worse than that, she’ll have to actually care about her looks, which is not something the woman who doesn’t want to bake cookies is prone to do.
Still, watch for feminists to burn Kinsley’s house down as he claims that her grooming will cut into her time creating an anti-terrorism policy or sleeping.
“Moreover, the least attractive man will always have one unfair advantage over the most attractive woman: he’ll need less time for physical preparation each day. The most vain male politician (that would be John Edwards, who once paid $1,250 for a haircut) probably spends less time on his hair, his cosmetics, and his clothes than the most indifferent or naturally beautiful woman. This is extra time he can spend developing an anti-terrorism policy or catching up on sleep. Feminism is no longer, if it ever was, about burning bras or not shaving your legs. Or at least the female leadership pioneers in business and politics do not interpret feminism that way. The first woman president, be it Hillary Clinton or someone else, will travel with a hairdresser and wear designer clothes. And she will need an extra half-hour or more every morning to do things that cannot be delegated to an aide and that even Barack Obama—probably our most physically fastidious if not downright dandyish president ever—never has had to bother with.”
