Presidential Election and Fashion

Blogs went wild during the last few weeks of the Presidential election because it was found that the Republican National Committee has spent about $150,000 at Macy’s, Saks Fifth Ave., Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Atelier, Gaviidae Pacifier, The Gap, Steinlauf & Stoller, and Lord & Taylor for Sarah Palin’s clothes in September and an additional $13,200 on hair and makeup. While I wholly disagree with that decision, there is a bigger issue. Male candidates’ fashion choices would not be put under the microscope in the same way as candidates’ Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have, or even candidates’ wives’ Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain have been.

How is this important to the election, or is it? I see this as important for two reasons. First, Sarah Palin has been touting herself as the down home hockey mom and small town mayor in order to appeal to the “real Americans” and portrays Barack Obama as an elitist. Much of the discussion surrounding this issue has been related to whether the RNC should have done this or not. The questions being asked involve this line of thinking. Who is elitist? Who can relate more to the common man? How would the public react if the DNC had bought Michelle Obama or Joe Biden clothes?
More importantly though, women are held to a higher standard and sexist candidate John McCain is willing to take advantage of Sarah Palin’s appearance in order to get votes. What we should be discussing is how to make this shopping spree mentality completely unnecessary for future female candidates. Who decides that image is so important to the presidential race?Why is the appearance of women so much more important than the appearance of men? Inequality between the sexes is the reason for this being necessary and the only solution is to create equality.
Below are related videos and links so you can see for yourself if you like.





Washington Post Article

The Atlantic Article
Campbell Brown says that the RNC should help pay for Palin’s clothes, hair and makeup simply because of the double standard. See what she thinks here