Beauty Blending into Politics

BY MASON SHAFFER

Fashion, like most things in this world, is one of many outlets for political statements in our day and age. Whether it’s where you buy what you wear or where you’re wearing it, there is no denying that a statement piece is a statement for a reason.

Fashion is entirely political, and this is made most evident by the women in politics. Physical appearance, especially for any woman involved in politics to any degree (or in general), is almost always the first thing people notice about her. This is certainly not groundbreaking news to anyone — but how do the other aspects of physical appearance impact the way we view women in politics? Are those things political too?

Things like makeup, hair color and style, signs of aging, height and weight have greatly impacted the way society views women and subsequently values them. Women who don’t fit a certain pant size or have one too many wrinkles are almost immediately deemed less desirable and are therefore of less value to our society. Women who wear too much makeup aren’t smart enough to hold an opinion of any worth, but the women who don’t wear enough aren’t pretty enough to listen to.

Our perspective of women, whether conscious or not, is inherently dictated by their physical attributes and the way they are presented to the world, which is also made evident by female political figures.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has sought to defy this norm and push boundaries, one lip color at a time. Representative Ocasio-Cortez is often donning a bold red lip in her place of work, which is an uncommon sight on Capitol Hill. AOC’s red lip is truly the ultimate statement — by refusing to sacrifice her femininity, AOC makes a powerful stance against the traditional masculinity we see in American politics.

We simply cannot have a discussion about the way physical appearance plays a role in society’s value of women without discussing the way race dictates this as well. The United States’ centuries-long history of oppression of people of color and westernized culture has directly impacted beauty standards in America, which is almost exclusive to whiteness. This intersectionality has translated to standards of professionalism — for example, Black women’s natural hair or braids are often deemed “inappropriate for the workplace,” while pin-straight hair and other physical characteristics are associated with white women.

To that, traits of other ethnicities or backgrounds and other cultures aren’t taken into consideration when defining what is beautiful (or even professional) in America. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was subject to heavy criticism when she first took office in 2019 over her choice to wear a hijab, a headdress native to her Somalian roots. It could be said that this scrutiny was a result of mass prejudice or the fact that Omar chooses not to reveal her hair, which is a physical characteristic associated with femininity by American beauty standards.

Racism doesn’t just extend through American society & politics — it happens all around the globe. Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, while perhaps not directly involved in British politics, serve as prime examples of this.

Kate is always done up, but not “too much.” She is never seen without her hair freshly blown out or slicked back into a polite ponytail; she is always wearing enough makeup for any person who actually wears makeup to know that she is wearing makeup, but never so much that it’s blatantly obvious to anyone who doesn’t.

She always wears a respectable heel — nothing too high, of course — and often neutral or muted colors so as to not draw attention to her outfit as opposed to herself or her husband. Kate is a polite, quiet white woman who always looks polished and put-together, and has been painted to be the more proper of the royal wives.

During her time as a royal, Meghan Markle presented herself in the same manner as Kate Middleton — she wore minimal makeup, dressed almost exclusively in neutral tones and kept her hair neat and off her face. Meghan is also polished and put together by any fashion or beauty standards. Meghan, however, faced mass scrutiny during her time as Duchess of Sussex and was a victim of the British press because of her race and ethnicity.

No matter what she wore, how she did her hair, where she went or what she did, it was deemed unprofessional, un-ladylike or unfit for a woman of her position, directly as a result of her race and American upbringing.

While standards differ from country to country and culture to culture, beauty isn’t limited to only certain traits or features. Beauty, despite American culture’s perception of it, is not what makes a woman — or any person, for that matter — valuable. The politicization of beauty standards has distracted us from that.