It's written on her face

Forgive me for this rant, but I'm fuming and must get it out.

As most people know by now, President Bush has nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. I believe it took roughly five minutes for critics to start in with the snide comments about her eyeliner. Excuse me, but when someone gets nominated to serve on the highest court in our nation, can't we please focus on something other than the heavy handedness with which she applies her cosmetics? Like, ohIdon'tknow, her stance on abortion? Her political campaign contributions? Her potential as a swing vote?

Look, I'm as guilty as the next person of finding entertainment in the beauty and fashion foibles of celebrities. Sure it's mean (though I must say it's often the delivery of the insult, not the insult itself, that amuses me), but these people are celebrities, not guardians of the Constitution.

I suspect what bothers me most is that the lambasting of physical characteristics wouldn't have surfaced nearly as quickly if the nominee had been male. We simply don't care as much what our male officials look like (the obvious exception being the new pope). The same crap happened when Hillary Clinton became a national figure. People have reasonable criticisms of her actions and character, but what did many people choose to talk about? Her eyebrows. Her sexuality. Some people criticized her husband's philandering ways, but the virulence of their discourse often paled in comparison to the gleeful hatred with which people discussed Hillary's mannishness.

It boils down to this: Knee-jerk attacks on powerful women's appearances underscore an inequality, one that some people would argue doesn't exist anymore. These women -- women in general -- can rise only so far with our snarky comments in the way.