Sunday, August 14, 2011

'Crazy eyes' Bachmann?

'Crazy eyes' Bachmann? Cry me a river | Pam Platt Fans of GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann are complaining about her expression in this Newsweek cover.




So who died and made Michele Bachmann Norma Rae? All the cries of victimhood over the Minnesota congresswoman's “crazy eyes” cover of Newsweek magazine would give you the idea that this Republican presidential candidate was one of the exploited and downtrodden types that her brand of tea party government either plans to unhitch from the federal feed or wants to go medieval on their union brass.

Rep. Bachmann's conservative comrades have reliably come rushing to her defense against the mean, old mainstream media, but the National Organization for Women, usually considered-at the very least - socialist agitators and witches by the right, has also joined the “sexist” chorus about the photographic depiction of someone whose politics are generally anathema to most of their goals.

Oh, cry me a river about “Crazy Eyes” Bachmann. This may get me drummed out of the sisterhood, but man up, women, and drop the Aunt Pittypat routine-or at least be consistent about when you get the vapors.

I don't remember anything approaching this widespread hullaballoo over a 2009 National Review cover of Sonia Sotomayor that made her look like a cross between a water-retentive Buddha and Roseanne-a caricature that could be cast as racist and sexist and ageist.

And I hate to use a handy and all-purpose subject, but of course and once again Hillary Clinton's pioneering, even in this cover-girl regard, is nonpareil. Let us count the ways.

These days, fashion folks go bonkers when time zones catch up with the globetrotting secretary of state and she improvises on the style front, showing up in public with her hair fastened with a butterfly clip (the horror … the horror). But back in the day-and by that I mean back in her first lady days when all manner of libel was cast her way and she was simultaneously a suspected murderess by some and the most admired woman in the country by others, including me-she was the subject of a number of magazine covers that make “Crazy Eyes” look like Patrick Demarchelier Vogue material.

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