I feel like you are answering this as if the opinion I clearly stated was never spoken. Which doesn’t feel great.
Anyway
I'm noting her extremely garish fashion
Garish to you. But as I said, I consider it fun and life-affirming in contrast to the dour and depressing “norm” that you seem to be endorsing.
sense because that stands out about her.
Only because you let it. If you decided to look past it, you would easily see other things that stand out - like her cold opportunism.
Most female Congressmembers aren't quite as garish,
Garish to you. Did you see Matt Gaetz’ suit coat? The cobalt blue one with the navy windowpane plaid? (I really like that one, btw - it’s very fun) Trump’s garish red satin tie that hangs below his belt to try to make himself look less fat and more tall?
I don’t think her clothes are garish at all. Colorful, fun, festive, funky, uplifting.
I really resent the argument that tries to hush and shush women for exercising fashion. I WANT MORE COLOR in my government. Stop trying to shut her up, is my point.
and most male members are almost depressingly monotonous. Jim Jordan is the main exception, since he likes to go jacketless.
See, you think that’s the exception, but you don’t even notice Gaetz, and even Schumer had one of those cobalt jackets recently.
And yeah, most are depressingly monotomous,
so why are we trying to support that dystopian worldview!?!?!
Opinion | Let's Discuss What Sinema Is Wearing - The New York Times by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Given the high legislative stakes, it is easy to treat Sinema’s aesthetics as unimportant. But those aesthetics are part of the way she courts, manipulates and plays with public attention as a political figure. Politicians are part of the cultural and economic elite. Their choices are always about public perception. In that context, a dress is never just a dress. It is always strategy.
Sinema is known for making a visual splash as a method of political storytelling. That story seems to be something like, “I am a maverick. You can’t control me. You are not the boss of me. I’m an independent thinker,” even when thinking independently may run afoul of reason or ideological positions.
Hang on, they are claiming that she uses her clothes to “court, manipulate and play with public attention,”
and you don’t think the navy blue coats are doing THE SAME?. Of course they are. They are just courting different people. So why do they get a pass? Because we like the people they are courting?
How about all the women who wore white during the SOTU? Weren’t they trying to court and play with public attention?How about all those bright red ties? Or the new trend in funky socks?
And the only reason hers seem to stand out is because there are gatekeepers who make it unusual. Let it go. Let it be not-unusual. Then it will take away the splash.
And what ON EARTH is wrong with wanting to give a message that
“I am a maverick. You can’t control me. You are not the boss of me. I’m an independent thinker,”
Why do we need or want to silence that message?
Which fits in with her being friends with a lot of Republicans, and with her recently declaring herself an Independent. But she claims that she is a workhorse Congresswoman and not a showhorse one -- and her fashion choices seem rather showhorsey to me.
Because you choose to think that’s what it means. I think a showhorse politician is one that puts forth showy bills that will never get passed. THAT is a showhorse. The clothing, yah, no. Not related.
AOC states that some showhorsey things can be a part of one's work, like appearing on public-affairs talk shows, as she often does, and as KS's good friend Joe Manchin often does. TMMC suggests KS's fashion choices are much the same thing for KS, but KS has been very reclusive since she got into Congress, a far cry from her earlier career.
There are a few schools of thought that tell us that we shouldn’t talk about what Sinema wears. One school tells us that her presentation and the way she dresses do not matter because her politics are just so bad. We need to focus on what really matters, the thinking goes, and clothing isn’t in that category. This is a common argument among people who view themselves as very serious thinkers. In fact, commenting on things like fashion and dress and style is considered anti-intellectual in most of my professional circles.
How arrogant of this article. This is ALSO a common argument from people who think the quality of your work is more important than how you look. For all of us who don’t want to jusge people by their looks whether it’s body shape or the shape of their sleeves. ”View themselves as serious thinkers.“. Pah. No, those of us who view others for their work.
It’s also common among those of us who object to and deeply resent the pressure to
conform and to suck the joy out of life.
I do not like Kyrsten Sinema.
I love enjoying her clothes In my government.
It is also very common in a masculinist strain of intellectualism to consider discussing anything associated with girls and women to be an inferior form of discourse. When we talk about a woman — even in the routine interrogation of how she is able to do her job as a powerful public servant — we are talking about femininity. And femininity does not rate as a substantive form of discussion. This is an easy argument to dismiss because it fails at its own standard: it is unserious.
Another line of argument is what I see as the third-wave feminist response to our culture’s obsession with women’s bodies as their only worth, which is: We should never acknowledge what a woman looks like. I have heard people proclaim emphatically, for instance, “Never comment on a person’s body.” To the extent that Sinema’s clothes are worn on her body, the logic goes, we should never comment on her clothing.
TMMC does concede that this is well-intentioned, given how women are often unfairly judged on their appearance and how they dress.
You can acknowldge what a woman looks like;
you can’t mock her for it, or put her down for it, or diminish her work over it.
Kyrsten Synema does lots of things wrong. Having bare arms or yellow petal sleeves are not among them.
Bring on the bright colors and fabulous styles in congress!
Bring on the bright colors and fabulous styles in congress!
