Here’s looking at you?
8 February 2008 @ 12:23
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There is a saying ‘Politics is show business for ugly people’ , which is perhaps partly true - after all both careers are generally down to perusing reaffirmation of ones own greatness from ones peers. Just in different ways. In one way, however, the two ‘jobs’ vary enormously; in one it is necessary to look a certain way, in the other you only have to behave in certain ways. Or so it would seem… Some comments made on my BNP post have made me ponder, when it comes to politics why do looks always seem to come in to it? ‘Gorgeous’ George? Teresa May’s shoes? How fat Cherie Blair is? And, as the rather strange comment put it, Nick Griffin who looks ‘odd’ (or however the poster put it) because he has a glass eye. What exactly has that got to do with politics? Why is it, when in an argument we always go to the lowest form of attack and call people ‘fat’ or ‘ugly’ or ‘weird’ or something else that relates to their physical appearance rather than what one is actually arguing about? Partly because, no doubt, it is an easy way to wound someone, to make them feel their self-confidence is hit. “You’re not as good as me and I know it”? Partly also, I think, because dominant male society has used looks to keep women ‘in their place’ for hundreds of years, so it just comes naturally to us all now. If you’re scoffing now, just think. If you’re fat, diets take time and energy, lots of time and energy. Working out equals less time at work or less time at home… Styling your hair takes time and money, make-up takes time and money (and men, who are completely in control whilst driving at all times would never ever get in an accident whilst putting on their mascara, would they?). Corsets restrict to the point of faintness. Shoes with heels restrict the amount of walking one can do and eventually cripple the feet altogether (two words, Posh Spice). Femininity, so-called, takes time and money. I’ve seen a lot of women get treated differently because of looks and expectations surrounding those looks. Now me, as the big haired, bulky, take-no-shit lass in Doc Martins, I was accepted - by some - as a “proper” student of politics and then political philosophy. Most of the other women I studied with seemed to get a lot more shit. Probably because, I think, most of them were more ‘girly’ and more conventionally attractive than myself. So, if femininity equals weakness and looks equal femininity then the gloves are off when it comes to calling names about appearance. Saying Nick Griffin looks weird is equal to calling him a girly girl who has no chance against big old me in a way. Bu, personally, I’d rather stick to talking about his evil politics and stop picking on something he can’t change… |
