Is JD Vance being scrutinized for ‘eyeliner’ while Kamala Harris is judged on merit? | Opinion
When J.D. Vance visits the Kansas City area next week, I won’t try to see if he wears eyeliner.
This recent rumor is one of many on social and entertainment media about the Republican vice presidential candidate, and I really don’t care whether he does or not. (Some makeup experts say it’s just his dark lashes against his baby blue eyes.)
Instead, what I find fascinating is that we are in a world where people are talking about a man’s looks and not a woman’s. Unlike previous female presidential and vice presidential candidates, Kamala Harris’ hair, makeup and fashion are not under the microscope.
Have we broken through the glass ceiling of candidacy? Are we in a pre-Donald Trump world of looking at candidates’ real qualifications?
A google search of Vance this week finds “eyeliner” as the second auto-generated search result. The first? Well, it’s another one of the rumors I mentioned — the one with sexual overtones. The third? Military service.
A search of Harris finds these: previous elected offices, a University of California Hastings College of the Law degree and her policy positions.
Wow. It’s almost like she’s a traditional male candidate.
I have to point out that while yes, we have been talking about Trump’s hair, skin color and hand size for quite a while, those talking points are outside the normal focus of how we discuss male and female candidates.
Let’s take a look at how we referred to previous U.S. major party women presidential and vice presidential candidates. It took going all the way back to 1984 to find just three: Clinton, Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro.
Hillary Clinton
Think back to the last female presidential candidate – Democrat Hillary Clinton. Her running mate was Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. Does anyone remember him?
My goodness, we couldn’t get enough of queries about her hair, her pantsuits, her headbands.
Newsweek wrote about how she spent 600 hours getting hair and makeup done during the 2016 campaign.
Vogue took a look at her “hair evolution” in 2015.
The Washington Post called Clinton a “product of our culture,” and referred to her as no longer being a “headband-wearing, apologetic cookie-baking wife of a White House contender.”
Clinton eventually embraced the focus on her hair, as Politico reported in 2018. If you can’t beat ‘em …
CNBC did a story on why she wears pantsuits following the release of Clinton’s book, “What Happened,” after her 2016 loss to Donald Trump.
What happened, indeed? Before Harris stepped up, some media outlets even suggested that she be a replacement for Biden. Times do change.
Sarah Palin
Much fun was made of former Alaska Gov. Palin, but most of it was about her suitability to be GOP nominee John McCain’s vice president in 2008. The McCain/Palin ticket lost.
When criticism did arise about her appearance, it was about whether the Republican National Committee should have spent $150,000 in designer clothing for her. The Federal Election Commission dismissed complaints that it was against the rules. Whether Palin, one of the worst VP picks in recent memory, went on a shopping spree that either the RNC rubber-stamped or that it dictated, it’s fair to ask the question about spending.
Geraldine Ferraro
Democrat Walter Mondale announced Ferraro as his running mate in 1984, when it was still a pre-internet and pre-social media world. Ferraro was a U.S. representative from New York and the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.
She was painted as being a woman who knew how to get along in a man’s world. But a Time magazine profile used description that probably would never be used for a man:
“Geraldine Ferraro has made her way in this male preserve by being both feminine and feminist. Her hair is frosted blonde, she wears stockings and makeup, and she loves to shop. When she needs to, she can flirt. But she is also tough and resilient, a shrewd back-room operator.”
Mondale and Ferrero lost the election. Americans, perhaps, weren’t ready for a woman in the White House. In 1984, the second women’s movement was about 20 years old. But people were nicer then, more respectful of leaders, weren’t we? Not like today.
Congratulations, Kamala Harris. You aren’t being needled about your hair or makeup, or even your own pantsuits. Nope, you are being just criticized about ancestry and politics.
Welcome to the boys’ club.
This story was originally published August 16, 2024 at 6:04 AM with the headline "Is JD Vance being scrutinized for ‘eyeliner’ while Kamala Harris is judged on merit? | Opinion."
