So is it just me or can women just not win on the campaign trail? I mean. Seriously. On the one hand we have the Clinton-Is-Dowdy Club, who revel in eyebrow-raising comments on the former First Lady’s tentative steps towards the plunging neckline (I think she’s a chick after all). Then we have the latest furore over the $150,000 that the Republican Party shelled out on Palin’s wardrobe (She’s a very freaky girl).
Let me preface the impending rant by conceding that anyone spending that amount of money on clothes over such a short period of time is a bit crazy. Factor in the (almost satisfying) pictures of investment bankers considering hanging themselves with their neckties and (absolutely horrible) photos of Main Street-ers losing their houses in the face of the sup-prime crisis, and we have a particularly disturbing illustration of political hypocrisy.
I get that. I really do.
The McCain/Palin camp launched into damage control: all clothes would be donated to charity. The Obama/Biden camp just did a victory dance over the fact that the GOP had once more walked into trouble (double smug in view of the Republican-fueled debacle that was John Kerry’s $1000 haircut). There is enough craziness to go around.
I tend to agree with Republican spokesperson Tracey Schmitt:
With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses…it was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.”
Although her comment loses some power when one counters with the statement: “with all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending money on pantsuits and blouses”. But let’s ask a more significant question.
Why did the GOP feel compelled to do an extreme make-over on Palin?
My favorite explanation (and lamentation) is from the Journal of Feminist Insight. But here are the Cliff’s Notes: there are about 40 members in the immediate Palin family – so that’s quite a few wardrobes being tended, Palin’s soccer-mum campaign style in her home state (which seems to be primarily populated by snow-wolves and moose anyway) hardly demanded haute couture, so when our beehive sporting maverick climbed onto the national stage, she had to play a bit of catch up. Also, judging by this New York Times colour piece on Palin’s do, before she had to face her country and the world in this campaign, Palin was more of a $30 cut at the local salon gal.
So basically, until we’re ready not to snicker at dowdiness or mutter about wardrobe repeats when it comes to women in the public eye, we can’t really give Palin a hard time for bowing to what the GOP, the public, and the race to the White House demands of her and her family.
