This last one is from the early days.
Posted on 12/12/2005 11:33:00 AM PST by fanfan
Belinda Stronach - the former Conservative party leadership contender and current Liberal cabinet minister - was whining last week that as a politician, she gets singled out for criticism just because she's a woman.
"I think we are held to maybe a different standard," she complained. "I'm often asked what clothes am I wearing, what shoes am I wearing, where do I get my hair cut?
"I don't often think men get asked those questions," she said.
Really? That would be news to former Reform party leader Preston Manning, whose nerdy appearance - and even by saying that, we're proving the point - was grist for many media mills during his political career.
Pundits and commentators argued that Canadians wouldn't accept a national leader who looked as rumpled and bookwormish as did Manning when he first hit the big time after the 1993 federal election.
In fact, Manning's squeaky voice, big-rimmed glasses and general "look" were routinely and sometimes viciously mocked by alleged comedians on the country's taxpayer-funded television network - and done in a way that, we daresay, Ms. Stronach, would have been decried as sexist had the mocking been done of a female politician's appearance.
Because of all that, Manning underwent one of the most radical image enhancements in political history. The glasses were ditched after he had laser eye surgery. The bad suits were replaced by designer labels. He had his hair tinted. By the time Manning left politics, he looked like he might have been a contestant on Extreme Makeover: Parliament Hill Edition. And it never did win him a seat on the government benches.
We always thought it was a bizarre double standard that many in the national media obsessed that Manning's personal appearance somehow prevented his party from connecting with Canadians while, at the same time, Jean Chretien wasn't exactly getting offers to pose for the cover of GQ.
Indeed, Stronach probably has forgotten that the reason why Manning was replaced by Stockwell Day as leader of the then-Canadian Alliance party was because, well, Day was better-looking and more charismatic than the geeky-looking Manning.
Even current Conservative party Leader Stephen Harper has undergone a minor image tinkering in an attempt to make him more palatable to voters. And why do critics of Harper's "cold" personality and "helmet hair" want him to be replaced by Peter MacKay? Hint: it's not because of MacKay's steel-trap mind or eye for fine policy details. It's because MacKay is cuter.
So, get over it, Belinda.
You're not the first politician - male or female - to be singled out for attention based on your appearance.
And you sure as heck won't be the last.
This last one is from the early days.
No, she gets singled out for criticism because she's a slag.
Is this the woman who was dating Bill Clinton - last year, IIRC?
The same.
Presumably, this faithless skank will be dumped by voters on January twenty-three - hi-fiddle-de-dee!
Didn't Ross Perot have big ears? Oh, wait, I can't know that, since the media never comments on the appearance of male politicians.
So is it other women asking her where she gets her hair done etc., or is it "metro-sexual" dudes? I don't picture a normal guy asking her that crap.
Yeah.
Shes a feminist that uses the benefits of being a woman.
I guess 'Daddy's Billions' help to keep her deluded.
Now the Beast is Jealous. She acts like she's moving to the center, and Bubba starts shagging a Conservative that morphs into a lib.
Whats the world coming too?
Yea......she should have kept banging Bubba.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.