Thursday, 24 June 2010

First female leader for Australia - enter the style police

This morning history was made in Australia as the first female Prime Minster was sworn in by the first female Governor General (the Queen's representative in Australia). Julia Gillard is now the country's leader and the significance of this event is not lost on many women.
(New Prime Minister Julia Gillard left, Governor General Quentin Bryce right)

The Labour party in Australia voted internally to oust Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister who was lead Australia into environmental responsibility, and who finally apologised to the Aboriginal population for the way they have been treated as a people. Recently his popularity plummeted and Deputy PM Julia Gillard stepped up to challenge his leadership of the party and of the country. The party gave her full support and she took over the leadership in one night.

Although the support she received from the right faction in the otherwise slightly-left-of-centre Labour party was what made the difference in taking up the lead, Julia Gillard has the courage and unapologetic leadership skills to take this position the way she has. She has said to the media that she made the move because she saw a good government losing its way and she felt it was up to her to keep it on track.

A former lawyer, Gillard worked for an industrial relations law firm, first as a work experience junior, and later as partner. She moved to state politics in 1996, and federal politics in 1998. Australia is a truly sporting nation, and the fact that Gillard is a big fan of Australian Rules football club the Bulldogs raises her popularity amongst the most blokey of Aussie blokes as well.

So why is it that within HOURS of being sworn in as the country's first female PM, this highly qualified, highly educated, strong leader has news items appearing which speak of the colour of her hair (she's a natural redhead) and her style of dress??? With headlins like "Enter the Style Police" and "Julia Gillard needs a new stylist". Why is it that a woman in politics is judged so much more harshly on her appearance than her male counterparts?

A few years ago when Hillary Clinton addressed a graduating class at Yale, an audience of America's most brilliant young women, she remarked with weary irony: "The most important thing I have to say today is that hair matters ... pay attention to your hair. Because everyone else will."

My guess is it's simply because it makes for popular media. Women in politics have had make-overs and been photographed for glossy mags, which can be seen as a degradation of their professional position, but it can also be seen as a way of speaking to women through popular media and demonstrating the many faces of the female role models we have. While it can be frustrating just how much attention was focused on what dress Michelle Obama wore to Barak's inaugrual ball, it can also be seen as a way of drawing popular attention to this strong, influential, intelligent woman in a position of power.

While it's a shame that women have to measure up to the fashion industry's judgment rather than be judged on her capacities professionally, I did learn something from Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth" when I read it as a 16 year old: the popular media culture can be damaging in terms of what we are shown as the "perfect" yet impossible ideal of beauty which we are supposed to compete with and live up to, but it is also a means of mass communication which connects women automatically. In fact it may be an opportunity to display female role models in many different lights.

I deplore the fact that style police enter the scene purely because the new PM is a woman, but I applaud the fact that Julia Gillard is seen as a role model in all forms of media. As long as it continues to be an empowering context, that is!

1 comment:

  1. Hey Cassandra,

    At the beginning of the year, Time magazine had a feature article on Angela Merkel: http://bit.ly/6sv6i6. In the accompanying photos the woman leading the world's fifth-largest economy looks refreshingly unglamorous and real. It made me wistful for Holland and the freedom from beauty pressure I felt there, compared to the US.

    Maybe it was just my imperfect understanding of Dutch culture and language, but I felt so much more freedom there to just be myself as a woman. When I returned to the US I experienced the omnipresent atmosphere of makeup, clothes and hairspray as oppressive. At least now I know that it's a cultural invention and not reality. Still it's hard when the beauty ideal seeps into your very (preferably small and exfoliated) pores.

    Here's another interesting article on women in politics: Too Hot to Handle, Stop Ogling Republican Women. http://bit.ly/bhBOUh It talks about "The Palin Effect" and the sexualization of GOP women.

    While we're on the subject of Sarah Palin in a Newsweek article in June titled "Saint Sarah" http://bit.ly/bTOEqD describes how Palin denounces traditional feminist priorities while at the same time promoting a "Mama Bear" ferocity:

    "These Christians seek a power that allows them to formally acquiesce to male authority and conservative theology, even as they assume increasingly visible roles in their families, their churches, their communities, and the world.

    From here in the Midwestern Bible Belt of Kansas I follow Sarah Palin with amusement as she does The Twist in her efforts to embody both power and feminine acquiescence. And I watch in horror because she strikes exactly the right chord with women of the religious right who are seeking a path through "a thicket of contradictions".

    Thanks, Cassandra, for writing this blog and expressing your own journey to find your warrior goddess! It's great to catch up with you again.

    Karen

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