I have been amused by recent reports that Republicans are slimming down in preparation for the probability of taking on Hillary Clinton for the US presidency in 2016. Perhaps inspired by their fellow hopeful Mike Huckabee – author of the pleasingly titled magnum opus Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork – Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, and Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, have lost eight and a half stone between them.
Though Clinton herself is no stranger to scrutiny regarding her physical appearance (Hillaryugly.com is an entire website devoted to “unflattering” photographs of her), it is beginning to look as if male politicians may for once be facing the same treatment in the run-up to elections. Could it be that the Daily Mail’s infamous “Downing Street catwalk” – featuring Esther McVey and her fellow ministers – will switch its attention to male models?
A friend of mine, whose identity, for the sake of reputation management, I will protect, commented recently that she felt the Labour press team were not doing enough to capitalise on Ed Miliband’s “eye candy” potential. Poor Ed has faced his fair share of public examination, what with all those Wallace and Gromit jokes and that streak of grey hair. But there’s no denying that his recent performance modelling a feminist T-shirt had something of the Littlewoods underwear model, with the classic thousand-yard stare. “Rather dishy,” my mother declared. Was that an Instagram filter I detected?
Equal opportunities objectification it may be, but is it progress? On Have I Got News for You, John Prescott and Eric Pickles jokes are traded in almost every episode. Meanwhile, David Cameron has been papped while getting changed under a beach towel, and he is regularly photographed jogging or selecting healthy, high-protein portions of fish. Perhaps his reluctance to appear in the leaders’ television debates masks a self-esteem crisis that has little to do with the possibility that his policies may not stand up and everything to do with his side profile. I suspect that reports of the prime minister “pouring his enviable curves” into his Marks & Spencer suit may be just weeks away. Welcome to our world, male politicians.
Punch up, not down
On to another vanity parade, yesterday’s Golden Globes awards. I was less interested in the dresses than I was in the comedic asides of hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who seem to have pulled off the near-impossible: an acceptable rape joke. Speaking of the fairytale musical Into the Woods, they remarked that “Sleeping Beauty thought she was just getting coffee with Bill Cosby.”
The gag’s success had little to do with the gender of the person making it (Louis CK has also pulled off a feminist rape joke) and everything to do with the golden rule of mocking the alleged perpetrator rather than the victim.
Art of the feminist nude
Men may be under growing scrutiny for their appearance, but they rarely face the backhanded compliment of being declared “Rubenesque”. Germaine Greer this week accused the Royal Academy of dumbing down after it staged a panel debate on body image as part of its Rubens exhibition. The Flemish master, she pointed out, had also depicted “luminous boys”. “Rubens isn’t someone giving advice on diet and body culture,” Greer said. That may be, but any effort to place the depiction of the female nude in the context of western art history should be applauded by feminists, not derided.
@rhiannonlucyc
