Can a fat woman get elected to high public office in America today?
Not likely, if Ruth Marcus is right.
Marcus wrote a column--published in today's Charlotte Observer (and copied below)--that says obese women don't cut it in American politics.
If the obese but very popular and well respected N.J. Gov. Chris Christie were a woman, he wouldn't be where he is today, let alone be mentioned as a potential candidate for the presidency of the U.S.
That's again according to Ruth Marcus' take on women and men running for office in the U.S.
She's probably right.
Consider, for example, the attractiveness of South Carolina's female governor--Nikki Haley. She's for sure nothing to sneeze at. Some would call her a head-turner.
Nor is Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann lacking in the looks department. (The woman is an idiot but quite fetching physically.)
Even Hillary (I stood by my man even though he was a dog in heat) Clinton is a catch. I've always thought her husband Bill must have been brainless in pursuing Monica L.
Sarah Palin?
Well, okay, she doesn't read newspapers but she's Alaska cute. That's an indisputable fact.
So why is it that Americans have such a low opinion of fat women vis-a-vis fat men?
You tell me.
Meanwhile, here's Marcus' column:
Obese female pols seeking presidency? Forget it
Ruth Marcus
National Columnist
Posted: Wednesday, Oct. 05, 201
WASHINGTON On the subject of Chris Christie's weight: if he were a woman, we wouldn't be talking about it.
You might think that's because it would be too dangerous to go there, mentioning a female politician's weight. No, although that's true too.
Rather, we wouldn't be having this discussion because corpulent Christine Christie, if you can imagine her, probably wouldn't have been elected governor of New Jersey in the first place. Party leaders and wealthy donors certainly wouldn't be beseeching her to run for president.
Appearance matters in politics, for male and female candidates. But it is an inescapable fact of political life that for female candidates, appearance matters more. Successful female politicians needn't be model-thin, but cringe-at-the-thought-of-sitting-next-to-them-on-an-airplane levels of obesity are rare among women in politics. In a potential presidential candidate, being as heavy as Christie would be unthinkable for a woman.
It is no accident - although bad political manners to mention it - that the two most prominent women in the Republican Party today, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, are trim and attractive.
Christie's weight is no doubt unwanted political baggage. After all, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lost more than 100 pounds before his presidential race. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, when he was, sorry, weighing a presidential campaign, joked that people would know he was running if he lost 40 pounds.
But those examples also demonstrate a certain comfort level among male politicians with their extra poundage. There is an Everyman aspect to a pudgy male pol. He can lament his weight without being humiliated by it.
Christie's obesity offers a regular-guy contrast to Mitt Romney's chiseled chin and perfect hair. "I weigh too much because I eat too much," he confessed after being treated for an asthma attack this summer. "And I eat some bad things too." Who can't identify with that?
Realities of gender politics
It is hard to imagine a female politician talking about her weight with that degree of equanimity. When Vogue interviewed Kirsten Gillibrand after the New York senator lost weight, she initially demurred about saying exactly how much. "Can I tell you off the record?" she asked the Vogue writer, before eventually allowing that she had dropped 40 pounds.
Gillibrand's Missouri colleague, Sen. Claire McCaskill, bravely took to Twitter to embarrass herself into losing weight. "I'm tired of looking and feeling fat," she tweeted in May. "Maybe talking about it publicly will keep me on track as I try to be more disciplined."
And then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, at a forum on faith during the 2008 presidential campaign, told how she sometimes sought divine intervention. "Sometimes I say, 'Oh Lord, why can't you help me lose weight?'" Clinton confided.
None of these women are close to Christie-esque proportions.
Sure, Christie's weight would have been a topic if he had run. If he were a woman, though, it would have been the end of the discussion. That's not a complaint, just a simple observation of reality when it comes to gender politics.
Ruth Marcus is a columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group. Reach her at ruthmarcus@washpost.com.
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