Canadian Politics Today

Uh... how often is Trudeau dismissed as an airhead with pretty hair? Mr. Selfie? A preening, prettyboy on display for the masses while the smart people behind the scenes run things? Now suppose Trudeau was a woman.... Would the same sort of attacks outrage you as sexist?

The attempt to portray Trudeau as a clueless pretty-boy is really the only comparison I can think of to the kind of comments directed at McKenna or Rempel or others.

Tim's comparison of this to ridiculing Trump's bizarre personal grooming choices falls flat.  Lots of politicians are made fun of for their appearance... Trump, Chris Christie, Jean Chretien, Stephen Harper, and many others.  But nobody has ever suggested that Chris Christie's morbid obesity or Trump's hilarious haircut and orange grill are signs that they're not competent.  But that's the message in this "Climate Barbie" tag, or dismissing Trudeau as "the haircut", or when the environment groups mocked (then Environment Minister) Rona Ambrose for spending her time getting her hair styled instead of working.


I recently read a BBC interview with a young female CEO. She had done a capital-raising meeting with a group of mostly-male investors, and a more experienced female investor took her aside afterwards and suggested she dye her hair brown and start wearing glasses. Male investors would feel more confident investing with a brunette, the woman told her. Ever since, she has dyed her hair brown, and ditched her contacts to wear smart-person glasses.  I have done this myself when I have interviewed for grown-up jobs, and know from experience that people treat you differently. I wonder if Catherine McKenna should try it as well.

 -k

It's also an interesting example, because it attributes to Trudeau in a negative fashion those characteristics which we would often associate with women.

Disagree, to an extent.
In my generation, a man who made too much effort in his appearance would be dismissed as effeminate, yes,  but it was the cliche'd version of feminine which women would also be criticized for - ie, narcissism and spending endless amounts of time on their appearance.

And what about all of the people whinging about this "sexist" remark that see no issue with people who mock Trump's orange coloration? Male politicians are constantly subjected to attacks based on their appearance except male politicians don't play the victim card and pretend that such as attacks are 'symptoms of social dysfunction'.

Trump's bizarre coloration is the result of his personal grooming choices, not heredity or a medical condition or anything else. And yet nobody ever uses his bizarre appearance to cast doubt on his competence to hold office.

Frankly, I think Mckenna's response to the issue actually re-enforces gender stereotypes and encourages people to view female politicians as fragile flowers that must be coddled. If Mckenna really cares about sexism she should look in a mirror.

I don't think there was anything fragile about the ass-kicking she gave Ritz.  She was right for calling him out, and the beatdown the Conservatives suffered as a result might make other knuckledraggers think twice in the future.

Lastly, calling someone "Barbie" is not simply a comment about appearance - it is a suggestion that they have a head full of air which is a reasonable comment given her thought free pronouncements on the topic. It is certainly no worse than calling Harper a "climate denier".

And if somebody wanted to take issue with McKenna's statements, I'd have no problem with that... but they didn't.

 -k

My female coworker has a gender neutral name, and she says it's interesting that when clients deal with her on the phone after exchanging emails, they are almost invariably taken aback when they realize she is female and not the male they assumed.  She also notices a difference in how she's related to thereafter.  No doubt most of these people (and its not just men) have no idea or intention of exhibiting sexist behavior, but they do it nonetheless.   One anecdote does not a study make, but it does back up the many studies demonstrating sexual bias in the workplace, even in 2017.   I don't hold it against men or women who unconsciously and without malicious intent follow the same sexist patterns, but I certainly do hold it against them when they deny it exists at all because once in a while a woman makes CEO or once in a while a man is mocked for how he looks.

I read an article by a man also who was horrified when filling in for a female co-worker temporarily.  He could not believe the amount of sexual harassment she received wherein all he got was business emails for doing the exact same job.

It's definitely an issue.

It's also an interesting example, because it attributes to Trudeau in a negative fashion those characteristics which we would often associate with women.

You skipped the rest of my post, didn't you? 

Trump's bizarre coloration is the result of his personal grooming choices, not heredity or a medical condition or anything else. And yet nobody ever uses his bizarre appearance to cast doubt on his competence to hold office.

He has been called an 'orange clown' or an 'orangutan' which certainly cast doubt on his abilities. Furthermore, McKenna's appearance is the result of her personal grooming choices. She may be a natural blond but she made the choice to keep her hair long and straight.

I don't think there was anything fragile about the ass-kicking she gave Ritz.  She was right for calling him out, and the beatdown the Conservatives suffered as a result might make other knuckledraggers think twice in the future.

Ass-kicking? Hardly. She got lazy and played the victim card which means in this day and age people are bullied into silence. More importantly, attack someone personally because you disagree with their ideas is just bad form. It would be indefensible if it was levelled at a man or woman. The issue is not whether Ritz was right to say what he did but McKenna's claim that this was 'sexism' as opposed to the normal partisan rhetoric.

And if somebody wanted to take issue with McKenna's statements, I'd have no problem with that... but they didn't.

And  you really think that was an option after she played the victim card? No one wants to have a SJW mob go after them.

Lots of people criticize the way the media objectifies Justin Trudeau.  I personally think it's way out of line and completely unacceptable.  The time they zoomed into his butt was cringe-worthy.

Having said that, it's not comparable to what women go through.  We're not allowed to be ugly OR beautiful. 

Sure, ugly men get criticized too but at least men are allowed to be beautiful and still be taken seriously.  I can't think of one beautiful woman managed to achieve the same status.

Let me bring up an aspect of this few people ever will from my time working for the government. Getting hired as a civil servant without going through a competition was virtually unheard of in my agency. When I was in administration, which was almost 8 years, it happened exactly three times. Will it surprise you that all three were young, attractive women? All three were rapidly promoted, too. And, come to think of it, they were all blondes. One is a manager now, making $100k a year. The second is a program manager, earning maybe $70k. Neither had university or college. The third, I lost track of when she changed departments, but she was in the PR area and already earning big bucks. None had any particularly unique skillset (and I'm not implying anybody slept their way in or up), but I can remember standing behind my manager's chair as he tried to write a justification for one of these, coming up with 'unique' knowledge and experience we could attribute to her so it would pass muster with HR.

The one who is a manager used to sit across from me. She was in charge of some internal services, or rather, of sending requests for internal services. Prior to her, that had to be done well in advance, in writing. She could make a phone call and get guys up to move desks, fix cubicle walls, or make repairs in minutes. The guy before her sometimes had to put together small articles of furniture. I watched her sit in her chair smiling at these two men twice her age who sat on the floor trying to put together some tables once and just laughed. She never had to do that sort of thing. Smart woman, and good looking.

All of which is to say it's not always a horror show for attractive women in business. Some of them know damn well they're attractive and don't hesitate to take advantage of that (and again, I'm NOT talking about sleeping with anyone to get ahead, which few women will do).

I think the example of Justin proves you wrong. Many people dismiss Justin as a light weight because he is 'beautiful'.

What people forget is looking 'beautiful' is incredibly time consuming for a man or woman (It is worse for women but 6 pack abs take a lot of time). Someone who is spending such time is not spending it on something else. For a movie actor this is not a big deal - for a politician aspiring to lead the country this raises questions about priorities. I think people intuitively understand the looking 'beautiful' may mean someone is not spending time reading policy papers or the news. I know this is gross generalization that will not apply to a small number of supermen/women but I think it is broadly true and the reason the stereotype exists.

I think picking on Trudeau goes beyond his looks, these are mostly people who just hate Trudeau.  Think of Obama for example, he is very handsome (more so than Trudeau if you ask me) but he was never referred to as a bimbo or not taken seriously.  Macron is another example and so is Nieto. 

I could be wrong, but off the top of my head I can't think of similar attractive women who got to the top positions without their looks causing as much discussion as their policies.