Who knows? The only outfits mentioned in this NYT article about last night’s SOTU are Nancy Pelosi’s:
Appearances were obviously important to Ms. Pelosi, who changed from the brown suit she had worn earlier in the day to a soft green one, which offered more contrast to her dark leather speaker’s chair.
And Autrey’s daughters’:
The chamber erupted most unanimously and loudly for Wesley Autrey, the man who leapt into the tracks of a New York subway to save a fellow passenger. (The only ones not clapping, it appeared, were Mr. Autrey’s two young daughters, who napped beside him in their bubblegum-colored dresses.)
–Ann Bartow
I had the exact same response (blogged about here: http://abirdandabottle.com/2007/01/23/and-george-w-wore-atie/). This is about the fifth time since she was sworn in that press reporting on Pelosis’ outfits has overshadowed he role as Speaker. It makes me nuts!
This is really outrageous stuff, and I’m sure it’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve got a lot of this ahead of us, especially as Hillary runs for President.
Women’s eNews had a nice piece about something similar – the constant references to female politicians as mothers or grandmothers, something never mentioned for male politicians. You can read it here.
Let’s see: what the women are wearing, whether they laugh or cry, whether they have children, whether they’re grandmothers, whether they’re tough enough, whether they’re lesbian if they don’t have an obvious male partner–hmmm….. Perhaps we haven’t progressed as far as we’d have hoped by now?
I’m looking forward to the point where I don’t have to read about “first” or “second” [insert position here] any more, but I think it’ll be a while.
“Perhaps we haven’t progressed as far as we’d have hoped by now?”
We’ve hardly progressed at all. I remember a time, in the 70s, when women would have shouted down such nonsense on television and in the newspaper. Now there is no one to shout it down, depiste the fact that we do have some strong feminist voices. But I think our feminist leaders are too busy trying to save choice, etc. to have the time and energy to tend to all the other matters that need tending to.
I find there are three types of women: Those of use who are driven crazy by this sexist circue and blog and write letters, etc., those who don’t like it but are too “busy” to speak up, and those who haven’t the faintest idea why we are upset.
I would really like to see more feminist men (thank you, David) speak out about issues like this.