Campbell Brown looks at the Palin clothing controversy and sees a double-standard:
"My Issue?" Brown said. "There is an incredible double standard here, and we are ignoring a very simple reality: women are judged based on their appearance far far more than men. That is a statement of fact. There has been plenty written about Sarah Palin's jackets, her hair, her looks.Sound familiar?" she asked. "There was plenty of talk and plenty written about Hillary Clinton's looks, hair, pantsuits. Compare that to the attention given to Barack Obama's $1,500 suits or John McCain's $520 Ferragamo shoes. There is no comparison."
Steve Benen, however, doesn't think it's about gender at all.
For goodness sakes. John Edwards, a man, spent $400 on a haircut, and the political world was obsessed with the story for quite a while. It had nothing to do with gender, and everything to do Edwards' image as someone working families can relate to.
I actually agree with Campbell. Edward's haircut scandal had something to do with his attempt to portray himself as an ally of the working class, but it mostly had to do with the perception that spending large amounts of money on one's appearance is something that women do. Republicans and the media spent months emasculating Edwards, referring to him as "The Breck Girl." Maureen Dowd devoted column after column to doing what she does best, which is characterizing male Democrats as girly men. Rush Limbaugh broadcast a parody of Edwards singing "I feel pretty." To the extent that we continue to see money spent on appearance as a"feminine" trait, there's no way to understand the uproar of Palin'swardrobe outside the context of gender.
This is not to say that gender is the only reason Palin's purchases have been noted -- they also played into an emerging narrative about her character. Like Edwards' haircuts, Palin's clothing expenditures cement an emerging narrative partially based on reality. Edwards' credibility and sincerity on economic issues was harmed by using a poverty group to fund his campaign, but the haircut story was the one that was genuinely damaging. Likewise, Palin's fiscal conservative credentials are undermined by her fiscal irresponsibility, her honesty by her incessant lying about her qualifications. Her characterization of herself as "Jane Sixpack" is just silly -- no governor of any state in any party could ever credibly make that claim. And so, many have begun to see her as insincere or phony, and this clothing fiasco fits that narrative.
Obama and McCain have been spared discussions of expenditures on their appearance because those concerns simply don't fit the established media narrative about their respective characters.
--A. Serwer
