In the recent Republican primaries, I was surprised, yet not all that surprised to see that "gender politics" were still very prevalent. I didn't actually watch this primary, but came across this article when I was browsing through the top news on yahoo a while back. The fact that there has been controversy over a woman's choice to have manicured nails is ridiculous to me. Michele Bachmann was in the primaries for this debate, and being the only female, she stood out among her male opponents. We've learned in class about gender roles, and according to that idealism, having a woman run for president, or be in the primaries is against the norm. Men are typically the breadwinners while women are the nurturers in the home. I think some of this bias came in to play against Bachmann, and adding on to that stereotype, she had manicured nails that clicked against the podium as she spoke. Why that stirred up so much controversy is baffling to me.
I think that since there have been few women running for president, our most recent example being Hillary Clinton, women stand out because it is typically a white-male dominated position. Obama has changed the "white" part of that stereotype, but the "male" part still stands. When a woman makes it that far to be in the Republican primaries, I think that we should listen to what she has to say rather than critique her fashion sense. You can't really critique the male fashion sense because it's so set in stone - black suit with a subtle tie, dress shoes and whatever make-up the stage people use to dull the shine on their faces. Women are new on this scene, so if they wear more make-up than deemed appropriate or normal, or they have fancy nails, people are going to notice. I would agree with the Boston Herald columnist that suggested an old-fashioned radio debate. That way, we wouldn't be swayed by the looks of different opponents and would hear their opinions more clearly, rather than be distracted by appearances. After all, we are voting for a president that will give us the best chance to succeed as a nation, not the one that will give us the most fashion-forward advice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/michele-bachmanns-manicure-tasteful-tacky-totally-off-limits/2011/10/19/gIQAY62mxL_blog.html
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Thank you Allison for this great reference. It is incredible that women have made such great strides into typically male-dominated arenas yet they still face unequal and unfair criticism on issues that do not apply to their male counterparts. This reminded me of an article I read a while back titled, "Giving Women a Voice Without Sacrificing Faith or Family: The Changes Needed to Create an Egalitarian Society" which was published in Square2, an online journal of LDS publications focusing on contemporary issues of the world today. One of my favorite references in this paper cites a 2008 research report by Goldman Sachs which found that "gender inequality hurts economic growth." While this french manicure of Michele Bachmann's may not necessarily exemplify full-fledged, broad-daylight gender inequality, it does highlight how women still face unique challenges when entering politics, business, and the general workplace (which are caused by underlying assumptions of gender roles in society).
ReplyDeleteI would encourage everyone to read the article I mentioned above (link: http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleClarkFaithandFamily.html). It is a fantastic paper written by an LDS female student on the difficulties of consolidating an LDS woman's desire to participate in the workplace with her perceived duty as the traditional caretaker in the home. She argues that, "Women’s invisibility is at the root of all their problems, and this invisibility comes from women’s profound lack of representation in the major decision making councils of the world and their lack of influence and power. To have their voices heard and better the lives of all women, men, and children, they must find their way into governments, academia, international affairs, and business administration. In that way, those making the decisions will have women’s needs and interests (and by extension, those of the family) in mind...Once I recognized this intense need for women to be co-leaders of human society I had to find some way to reconcile it with the counsel for women to stay home with their children. How to find this reconciliation is the subject of this essay." While this essay is a jump from addressing Michele Bachmann's manicure, I believe it to be very enlightening in her discussion of LDS women's difficulty in breaching a male-constructed workplace while still keeping familial values in mind.
Jane Eyre