Are Hillary's wrinkles fair game?

If you're a Drudge Report reader, you know that Matt's top "story" right now is a picture of a wrinkly and bedraggled-looking Hillary Clinton, above the headline "THE TOLL OF A CAMPAIGN."

What you may not know -- I only recently learned it -- is that the Drudge Report has become, at least in part, a Mitt Romney vehicle, courtesy of the Stormin' Mormon's senior communications strategist, Matt Rhoades, who is described as having a "direct line" to Drudge. I don't know whether Romney and Rhoades have anything to do with today's Hillary-bash, but it's widely believed that Drudge's recent anti-Huckabee headlines have been fed to him directly from the Romney camp.

But anyway, more interesting than the Romney angle, IMHO, is the sexism angle, which Ann Althouse tackles:

My first reaction to that picture is simple disbelief. How can she suddenly look that much older? I know Presidents age horribly in their few years in office, but she's not President yet, and this seems to have happened overnight. Did some treatment wear off?

But here's my second reaction, on reflection: We make high demands on women. A picture like this of a male candidate would barely register. Fred Thompson always looks this bad, and people seem to think he's handsome. We need to get used to older women and get over the feeling that when women look old they are properly marginalized as "old ladies." If women are to exercise great power, they will come into that power in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. We must — if we care about the advancement of women — accommodate our vision and see a face like this as mature, experienced, serious — the way we naturally and normally see men's faces.

I think Althouse is right. As such, I disagree with Glenn Reynolds and particularly with his reader, Thomas S. Baker, who writes: "Remember all the media attention regarding John Kerry and his alleged botox injections?" I think that actually proves the point, rather than disproving it. Kerry didn't get bad press for being wrinkly, ugly and old-looking; he got bad press for trying to improve his appearance, so that he would look smoother, more attractive and younger! His supposed use of Botox was seen as unmanly, and that's why it was a big deal. (To an extent, the same is true of John Edwards's $400 haircut, and that video.)

If Kerry had never used Botox, his wrinkliness never would have been a campaign issue, just as Fred Thompson's isn't. Glenn says "if Fred went from apparently smooth-skinned to wrinkly overnight, people would notice." But let's get real. The camera can make the same person look wonderful one minute and horrible the next, depending on camera angles, lighting conditions and so forth... not to mention how much makeup the candidate is wearing (and yes, the male candidates wear makeup, too). Point is, I'm sure there are plenty of unusually unflattering photos of male candidates sitting on various wire services' cutting-room floors, never published, and certainly never the top "story" on Drudge. So this isn't just a double-standard based on gender; it's almost an opposite standard. Women are supposed to look young(-ish) and fashionable (but not too fashionable) and unwrinkled at all times. Men are supposed to project an aura of not caring about their appearance at all -- beyond looking "presidential," of course, whatever the heck that means (and wrinkles probably help in that department).

Comments

[Aaron]

Right on the money.

[Joe Mama]

Interesting. I didn't know about the Romney-Drudge connection. I concur with what's been said so far, and would only add that women tend to be their own worst enemy when it comes to their appearanes being political fodder (e.g., the NYTimes' insufferable Maureen Dowd).

[JO]

Holy Crap, she looks like she aged 20 years!!!!

[yea]

its sad that a lot of people actually use drudge as their primary news source. he breaks some stuff before others, but there is definetely an agenda to that site. he goes out of his way to post any record low/cold temperature whenever he makes a different post about global warming. its kind of shamless.

to have that hillary picture be the top story for the site, pretty much shows what he is about. im suprised he doesnt have the siren.

[Sandy Underpants]

If anyone thought that the Drudge Report wasn't a vehicle to promote specific republicans and agendas, and denegrate specific republican opponents and opposing thought, then they are probably a republican or not reading the Drudge Report anyway.

[Joe Mama]

yea,

I feel your pain. Conservatives have been saying the same thing about the NYTimes for quite a while now.

[Condor]

I'm of the opinion that media outlets should be classified not in terms of left and right, but rather in terms of their intelligence level. So, the NYTimes and the Wall Street Journal would be on one level. Lower would be Fox News and CNN. Still Lower, Drudge and Daily Kos.

That said, a little perspective is in hand, Joe Mama. The NYTimes reports on waterboarding. Drudge reports on Hillary Clinton's wrinkles.

I've always wondered though, since Drudge can't be sued whenever he gets things totally wrong, since he is in gossip rather than the news, if someone turns him in as a child molester on another blog, can they claim the same rights? What if I report right now:

MATT DRUDGE IS A CHILD MOLESTER.

[David K.]

Drudge doesn't deserve anywhere near the attention he gets, because he is a sensationalist partisan who yes he breaks stories, but he does so like a gossip monger, not an actually journalist.

[Brendan Loy]

Drudge can't be sued whenever he gets things totally wrong, since he is in gossip rather than the news

I don't know where you heard this, Condor, but it's not a valid legal concept.

[Condor]

Hmmm... Thanks for calling me out on that one. It turns out I was wrong.

I had in mind Blumenthal V. Drudge, which I had read involved some judgment which hinged on a libel distinction between gossip and news. But after checking it, it looks like Blumenthal dropped the lawsuit instead.

Anyway, please run my retraction on page E37.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Her wrinkles became fair game when she said, "Don't pick on me because I'm a girl."

[Joe Mama]

Drudge's popularity is perhaps due to the fact that while he on occasion writes news stories himself (typically rumors and gossip), his is a news aggregation website that consists primarily of links to stories and columns from the mainstream media. Drudge isn't at all like Daily Kos, either in nature or content.

[David K.]

Uh yeah, and? The shouldn't be picking on her because she's a girl, they should pick on her or not based on her positions. Being a girl shouldn't be part of it from either side.

[Mad Max, Esquire]

Hillary played the gender card first. She should play with the hand she dealt herself.

[Doc]

See, the thing is, Fred Thompson is wrinkly, but he looks presidential. We know this because he has played the president in movies, and nobody would put cast him as president if he didn't look the part.

As for how she looks, it gets a big "WHATever". Everybody takes crappy pictures from time to time, and I'm not planning on voting based on whether or not I'd do her.