on Jan 20th, 2008Hillary’s femininity
The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying.
That’s from Vogue magazine’s February editor’s letter, in which editor Anna Wintour takes Hillary Clinton to task for cancelling a photo shoot. A Vogue spokesman confirmed to Women’s Wear Daily, “We were told by Ms. Clinton’s camp that they were concerned if Clinton appeared in Vogue that she would appear too feminine.”
Wintour’s letter, alongside a 2003 photo of Hillary in Vogue, goes on to say, “This is America, not Saudi Arabia. It’s also 2008: Margaret Thatcher may have looked terrific in a blue power suit, but that was 20 years ago. I do think Americans have moved on from the power-suit mentality, which served as a bridge for a generation of women to reach boardrooms filled with men. Political campaigns that do not recognize this are making a serious misjudgment.”
But not all is lost. The magazine’s spokesman also told WWD they are “working on something together” for the future.
While Wintour’s letter is not on the website, there is a nascent discussion about it on the magazine message boards.
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Hi - found you on fuel my blog and I have a question about your page translator at top right. Do you find that you get a lot of foreign readers that way? That is, if you see your incoming hits or links, if they started to come from far and wide once you installed it.
The reason I asked is because I clicked on the French and then the German one - I speak both fluently, and was, uh… kind of underwhelmed by the results. It comes out as a mixture of English and the other language, with a seeming inability to translate the word “they.” Overall, it is like reading foreign words with English grammar. Has anyone ever pointed that out? I would hate to be the bearer of bad news…
Darn, sorry, it wasn’t fuel my blog, it was via the WP.com forums.
Hi, Ian. Thanks for clicking on over! It’s the other way around - it’s there because I know I have readers from everywhere and it’s there mostly for recipe directions. You’re not the bearer of bad news; I’m American but not a monolingual one.
Certain things refuse to translate, especially if they’re in italics, and while it’s not perfect it’s the best I’ve found that doesn’t use up huge resources.
You know my wife and I have this discussion often. (and no I am not trying to win votes from the ‘Female side’ - I’m a die hard Republican, whatever that means anymore) anyway, I always tell her how sorry I feel for women in general. Whenever we are in a bookstore and we are looking in the business section there’s inevitably a book “The girls guide to (insert topic here)” and it’s ALWAYS a dumbed down version of said topic and covered in pink. I always feel bad because what are we as a society saying about women and business?
But have no fear, we men get our share of this form of disrespect. Just wonder on over to the pregnancy section and look at the ‘Dad to be’ section and flip through the ‘Dad’s guide to a baby’ type books.
…sad…
As far as Hillary goes, well, if she’s worried about looking ‘too feminine’ and it actually effects her decisions, however small that decision is such as a photo shoot, what will effect her decisions in the White House?
Cheers,
Tablebread
(p.s. you are on my blogroll now
- great site!)
Hi, Tablebread and welcome. Thanks for adding me to your blogroll. I think your site is delicious too and have added you here.
I don’t know when, if ever, gender will cease to be an issue in this country and I am, of course, acknowledging gender issues against men. For instance, men get breast cancer too, but it gets so little publicity.
I hope you’ll be back often!
She should get those pictures done in Vogue. Then I’ll have more material.
Whether she is a man or a woman, I’m not voting for Hillary. Has nothing to do with her sex, I’m a woman. She’s not the best candidate for President of the United States IMO. Ron Paul is.
Had vanilla chocolate for breakfast. Yum!
Ah, ella, thank you for posting this. If society-at-large, and not just the extremely intelligent people who read your blog, would be able to get beyond seeing humans as “people of color” or “people of gender” or whatever kind of people, and just as people, we’d be able to actually discuss the issues!
diss - I know several men who voted for Hillary in the primary. Not one, in choosing not to vote for one of the male candidates, said it has nothing to do with gender. Why do we women still feel compelled to defend our decisions and actions?
Sounds as if you had the breakfast of champions!
MusEditions - Thank you for the kind words. I so agree with you. I’m as dismayed as Wintour that this is an issue. I don’t recall it happening with Thatcher and I can’t help but wonder if it’s not indicative of our culture’s obsession with appearance.
And how interesting that this point was made by the most powerful woman, probably the most powerful person, in fashion. Wintour didn’t get there by being dumb or unaware of the public’s pulse.
Thanks for taking the time!
There always seem to be too many rules when it comes to Women! do this to luk serious, but then if you do this, you wud be viewed this way, blah blah! Dunno when is world going to make it easier for women to live their own life without being badgered by some infinite critical jabs from every corner!
No intention of hurting anyone’s sentiments - but I hate the fact that women’s stuff are always associated with pink! - pink cute and dumb!anyways..good article
Hi, Dhivya and welcome. I know what you mean about pink (which happens to look good on me and I love it) but it’s not that way everywhere.
In NYC the most common color for a clothing gift for infants is yellow, gender-neutral. Having moved to New England, I’m in a time warp and it’s pink and blue, pink and blue, gah. I think it’s time for much of America to realize it’s not 1950 anymore.
The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously . . . .
This post has been niggling at me for days, now. And it has nothing to do with the suitability of Ms Clinton as president.
I think what I take issue with is Ms Wintour. Her long
career has focused on the unattainable pursuits of being thin enough, rich enough, flawless enough; desirable enough. If Hillary Clinton is most comfortable being photographed and interviewed in her conservative pantsuits, then that should be 100% her call.
For Wintour to editorialize otherwise is tacky sensationalism. It makes me wonder what her agenda is; not question Hillary’s.
That’s a good and interesting point, sage. I don’t know if you read any of the posts on the message board I linked to, but the last time I checked, a few days ago, the general feeling was that Wintour is out of her depth on this. I understand that sentiment but don’t necessarily agree; she did not become the most powerful person in fashion by being an airhead.
However, your point about agenda is also a good one and brings to mind, for me, the question of ego.
The other points — thin enough, flawless enough, etc — certainly apply but I think also go to a different and much larger set of issues that afflict our society as a whole. Yes, afflict. Some of our culture’s ideals disgust me.
Affliction indeed.
I don’t think I’ve so much as touched a *fashion* magazine since the year they embraced Heroin Chic.
Maybe that brands me outoftouch, but I don’t think so.
With certainty, AW is not an airhead.
It’s a funny thing about fashion magazines. When I lived in NYC I didn’t have to buy them. All I had to do was keep my eyes open and see what fashionistas on the street were wearing and anything in the stores was totally au courant. Here, there’s no reason to buy them because even Boston is at least a year behind and I can’t buy anything in them, at least not if I want to try it on.
But I stil engage in the annual autumn aerobics exercise and buy the September issues. Vogue weighs more than some cats.