5th April 2013

KAMALA HARRIS and HER LOOKS
Obama was recently criticized for noting that Kamala Harris, the California US Attorney General, is attractive. I really don’t see what the problem is with this. He first complimented her on her intelligence and skill, and then on her looks. Clearly these things are all part of the same package and why is it ‘unfeminist’ to notice someone’s attractiveness. First of all, the cliche that attractive women are stupid and intelligent women are unattractive is reinforced when people protest against a smart, successful women being called good looking. Second of all, I would argue that the solution to gender equality regarding looks is not to stop commenting on women’s looks, but to ALSO comment on men’s. So, let’s start now; President Obama is intelligent, empathetic, and is erm, the PRESIDENT, and to top it all off, he’s TOTALLY HOT. So there you go POTUS, you are vindicated! You’re welcome.

DEBENHAMS’ EXTRAORDINARY MODELS
Debenhams’ recent media campaign features a series of ‘average’ models. But they aren’t really average at all, in that they represent the extraordinary (disabled) or the extreme (short, large, elderly) i.e. none of them sit in the middle (average height, average weight, middle aged) This of course is no surprise, seeing as fashion has always been about extremes. As such, I’ve given up seeing a 5 foot 5 inch, sized 12, 48 year old woman represented in fashion. Still, this campaign is certainly a step in the right direction. At least it represents a range of extremes, as an alternative to the very very tall, very very young and very very thin fashion norm.