There are a lot of social questions that can never be answered. This is my problem with the world, and there is no one in particular to blame for this issue. But I am the kind of person who needs answers, so I find myself mad at the world when they are not readily available. By now, you're like, really Ashley, what are you talking about? I'm talking about women in politics, and what we make of them. How can a woman "be a man" without NOT being a woman? If she's no longer "being a woman" we do not want her, but if she is too much of a girlie girl, we don't take her seriously. You have your Hillaries - the strong "women's woman," sporting the pants suits and playing with the big boys. Then you have your Sarahs - the beautiful "men's woman," rocking $6,000 dresses while smiling and winking at the cameras. But there is no clear cut definition of what we want a woman in politics to look like. We're going to talk about the Hillaries like they're men in womens' suits, and we're going to assume the Sarahs are beautiful idiots. We as a society are unable to look at a woman without marking her - which is my frustration with the world. What would we do if we ran across a woman who played politics like a Hillary, but looked just like a Sarah? Chances are we wouldn't be able to NOT take in account her appearance.
So what about President Barbie? I think the idea is simply FABULOUS, and if I had a daughter I would certainly buy her President Barbie before I even considered purchasing Pregnant Barbie - you know, the cute barbie with the huge belly that was on shelves a few years back? You press on her tummy and the baby magically pops out! Whoever thought of that one is a GENIOUS! I can just imagine all of the conversations on motherhood that were sparked between little girls and their parents! I would not buy pregnant barbie if it was the last toy ever made and my child had her birthday on Christmas. If you ask me, it gives off the impression that that is what little girls are supposed to do with their lives - have babies and still manage to look like barbie! But this is an entirely different issue, so back to president barbie... I love this, it shows that barbie can do more than play in her beach house, pop out babies, and care for her pets.
I think Miss Winter's speech Wednesday was (for lack of a better word) inspiring. Though I do agree with some of our other bloggers - in that I felt I was kinda being sold the program - I felt we needed to hear what was said. Although (like some of our other bloggers pointed out) I am hesitant to agree with the idea that women will bring morals to politics (believe it or not, gentlemen, women too can suffer from lack of morale), I do firmly agree that women would bring a different perspective to politics. Again, it's back to the old social question - we need to be like men, but still be ladies. We need to play hardball, but maintain our "morals." Be a man - but don't forget to look and act like a woman at the same time. Since there are no definite answers, I offer this - we need more women in politics so that we can become comfortable with all types of women. I love the phrase you can't win if you don't play - as women, we cannot expect everything from politics if we don't jump in there for ourselves.
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I definitely think that you're right; even if we got a woman with both brains and beauty/fashion sense running for high office, her looks would be commented on and picked apart. Perhaps we would marvel that she could be both smart and pretty; I'm not sure we always expect that women can be both simultaneously, which is a sad comment. It probably accounts for the "This Is What A Feminist Looks Like" campaign, to try to show people that feminists don't all fit some stereotype of ugly, masculine, man-haters. A woman who looks good isn't taken seriously as a contender, but a woman who looks and acts 'too masculine' isn't taken seriously as a woman. Far too often, women are discredited because they don't fit into the tiny box of our beliefs about what a proper woman should be.
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