Skeptical Moments

[akirlu]

Okay, maybe some of the dissing Hillary Clinton gets for looking crabby is crypto-sexist. But how exactly can anybody serious claim that Clinton's uniquely singled out for bashing based on appearance? Or did they just sleep through the last eight years of the Left refering to George W. as a smirking chimpanzee? Or the cartoons of Bush as Alfred E. Neuman? And I'm not saying Bush doesn't look like a smirking chimpanzee. I'm just saying that mocking people's looks isn't necessarily anti-feminist.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

And is anyone old enough to remember Nixon?

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that political caricatures are absolutely standard, always insulting, and have been around for well over 100 years. It'd be reasonable to say they're not acceptable too; I find it a bit harder to argue that they're acceptable but picking on how people look *in words* is not.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Apparently the size of Bush's ears in political cartoons is correlated with his ratings in the polls, or something like that (the more negatively they want him to come across, the bigger the ears). Someone did a study a couple of years back, and asked a cartoonist for confirmation. He agreed.

[avram]

Not to mention fat jokes about Bill Clinton, or jokes about Reagan's flabby neck, Carter's toothy grin, and Nixon's general appearance.