Apparently it's time once again to over-analyze the fashion choices made by female members of Congress. At least this story appears, appropriately, in the Style section. (It's particularly maddening when the Times chooses to put basic coverage of women politicians in this section, as if they were still the "Women's Pages." Or when the paper chooses to cover women's fashion in the politics section.) But this is exasperating. We're STILL talking about what female politicians wear just as often as we talk about what they accomplish in the political arena?
Women in politics are still operating in a male world and don’t want to appear as lacking gravitas.
That's true. Men will get called out if they wear something totally inappropriate (see: Cheney's parka at the Holocaust remembrance ceremony), not really for fashion choices. It's simple for them (if they want) to avoid calling attention to their clothing. Women, on the other hand, are "marked" no matter what they choose to wear:
[Deborah] Tannen points that women are marked in other ways, too. Most notably by our appearance. We're marked if we wear a short skirt (floozy!), or if we wear a power suit (ballbuster!), if we wear our hair cropped short (dyke!) or if we get a giant perm (stupid secretary!). She notes that men can be marked by their clothing choices or titles, too. The difference is they have the option of going unmarked. That's a choice women never have.
So Pelosi wears a fashionable nipped-waist jacket and she's marked as a swiftly effective political leader. Condoleezza Rice wears boots; she's marked as a dominatrix. Harriet Miers wears eyeliner; she's marked as begging for Bush's attention. And on and on. Men simply have to choose between a black, navy or gray suits and pick out a tie. And the color of their cravat rarely marks them as anything.
I realize that politicians are public figures, and so people are going to talk about every little choice they make. Including their clothes. But these stories are never about male politicians' physical appearance. That's sexist. So I give Pelosi and her staff major props for refusing to talk to the Times for this article.
And that's probably all I would have had to say about it, prior to moving to Washington. But now that I live here, I have to say this part is all true:
Washington has never embraced fashion (nor, for that matter, has the fashion world embraced Washington), and for understandable reasons. In political circles, fashion is a loaded term, smacking of frivolity and vanity.
It's interesting because this has been one of my constant complaints since moving here -- everyone looks so boring! Dull dull dull. It's as if suits and khaki pants and plain black overcoats and rectangular black leather shoulder bags are issued to every person (male or female) who accepts a job in this city. Sometimes I wonder why I'm the only gal on the metro wearing chartreuse tights or a vintage dress or big costume jewelry. It's a chicken-or-egg thing: Are people with more adventurous taste in clothes simply not the type to take a job in DC? Or is it actually hard to get ahead in this town if you don't wear the required blah uniform?
If I want to be taken seriously, do I have to suck it up and start shopping at Ann Taylor Loft?
And so even though I recognize the sexism in today's Times article, there's a part of me that couldn't help thinking "niiiiice!" when I read that Pelosi rocks the mod velvet suit. Because I take pleasure in fashion. And I shouldn't have to apologize for not wanting to abide by the unspoken city-wide dress code-- neither should Nancy Pelosi. But the way to write an article about clothing style in Washington and on the Hill is to discuss politicians of both genders who buck the fashion conventions of our nation's capital. (They could totally mention John Tester's vintage look.) Because the nit-picky analysis of only female politicians' clothing? That's so overplayed.
Jill has more. And Wonkette's reaction is also appropriate.
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DC fashion IS boring, but for me as a woman, it's the closest I've ever come to being unmarked. My grey peacoat, my black slacks, or a shirt from my exactly-like-everyone-else's Oxford collection aren't very different from the uniform of DC men. And I like that.
Yesterday, I deviated and wore jeans and a cool jacket with thrifted brooches. Two cashiers asked me if I wanted a student discount. Funky gets you nowhere in this town.
An excellent point, snappy. Plus, I suppose it's easier to be unmarked in winter. Save for a few differences in tailoring, most black overcoats can look pretty similar.
Washington isn't completely unfashionable. Jackie Kennedy lived in the area for years, spicing up the scene with her french designer apparel...and I once had a boyfriend who lived in DC and was obsessed with owning an armani suit and prada shirts.
It's clearly obvious:
Democrats do it better.
And what's with the SCOTUS Justices wearing black robes. When you go into Oral Arguments, I want you to CLASH!
I'm from NM, where people dress in fun, new-agey outfits and colors (Santa Fe chic, they call it). When I moved to NYC to take a corporate position on Wall Street, I got dressed down (sorry; couldn't resist the pun) for my unprofessional dress.
I believe in that case, though, a man would also have been chided for dressing too casual and non-corporate. So I believe there may be both a sexist and a sort of "tribalist" element to it.
I totally agree, snappy. I know it's boring, but I've never been interested in clothes beyond "does it keep me warm in the winter, or cool in the summer?", so that's just fine with me. And it is an equalizer, in a way. Good point.
Although all this talk about the wardrobes of female politicians is starting to grate on my nerves. Find something ELSE to cover, for god's sakes.
It's a sad, sad thing for DC if Jackie Kennedy was the last fashionable person to live there.
While this is problematic, I actually appreciate it a little. When they report on what female politicians wear, I get to see professional clothing on powerful women. It gives me ideas on what I can wear in my professional life.
you folks are totally overlooking the media coverage of barrack obama's outfits linking him style-wise to the Iranian president. see, the media is totally fair and balanced....oh wait.....
Whatever, it's time for female senators to start wearing suits too. As in the male kind. That'd really throw em.
ann, why did i think you lived in california? i have to do a better job keeping up with things over here :) i just moved to DC three months ago as well, and i completely see your point.
for myself, i'm in that weird limbo area between early 20s, gradschool thrift store and late 20s, mid-level professional ATL-devotee. the blandness of the clothing choices in a professional office (at least on my budget!) makes me a little sad, but i don't really feel like i have the wiggle room (or the disposable income, or the energy to really troll the thrift store racks) to make it more interesting.
but this post has inspired me to try a little harder to mix it up a bit...so thanks for that!
I too love fashion. But it appears that in our society the way in which a woman is dressed is a mark of her intelligent, personality and behavior. If a woman dresses in masculine suite she is seen in a negative light, if she dresses to feminine she seen as using her femininity to get what she wants.
This can be confusing! Can’t dress in suite, can’t wear a dress. What will they say about me? Are they really listing to anything I am saying or just what I am wearing? The first thing the media tells us about a female politicians when she gives a speech, is what she wearing, next comes what she spoke about. How is it shocking that the Time or any other media source, constantly comment of the style of the female politicians? When this is so embedded into our society, its hard not make some of these comments.
This past summer I was an intern in Washington D.C. For the male interns it was easy a suite, black, grey, blue choosing the color was the simplest thing they had to do. I even remember a story on the news targeting what female interns were wearing. For us ladies it was, is this skirt to short, what are my clothes saying, are they to feminine, to young looking or do I look too masculine? When will the time come, when we don’t comment on what the female politicians are wearing, and comment on what’s coming out of their mouths?
You have no idea how relevant this actually is (strickly from the fashion sense) to someone like myself who went to college in DC from 80-84 when androgeny was in (think Annie Lenox BIG BIG TIME - now, she looked awesome, but when you translate that to the political world of the Reagan D.C....)! When I look back at what I wore to my job at the USDept of Justice and my internship on the Hill - BLECH.
Another part of me wants to say, eh - you know - news coverage is news coverage.
And another part of me says, well - how does Pelosi or any of the other women feel about their clothes? Because who gives a ... what everyone else says - if the person is wearing what makes them feel confident, ready to rumble and resolve, or whatever, then wear whatever you want - and whatever helps you get the job done.
I'm a Brooks Brothers/Ann Taylor fan, which seems to work well - nicely made suits that are very professional. Maybe it's me, but I like suits that are cut for women (NOT 80s power suits) and emphasize my waist. My big problem is finding suits that are appropriate to wear without hose, because I really hate wearing stockings in the summer.
Anyway, the problem is that our sense of corporate fashion was imported from England, when they were moving out of the mini-Ice Age. Wool suits were very practical then. DC, in the summer, is a freakin humid swamp. Any woman in her right mind would wear light slacks or a skirt without nylons, with a summer-weight sweater or blouse, as professional attire.
funny comic:
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/20070123_luckovich_all_the_news_thats_fit_to_skip/
i'm saddened that my comments are getting moderated. what'd i do?