How women in politics are treated by the media

Who knew just a coat could cause such a stir? Nancy Pelsoi caused quite a frenzy online due to the coat she chose to wear to a meeting with former President Donald Trump at the White House. Catherine Thorbecke, a Good America writer, described the outfit by writing “ a fire-red, high-collared coat”. Social media coveted the term “fire colored coat”’ to describe Pelosi’s outfit choice that day. The reason this coat caused such a stir is because Pelosi wore this same coat for former President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. Throughout Trump’s political campaign and presidency Pelosi remained outspoken about her dislike for him. Many felt that by wearing this coat she was sending him a message of her stance on him as the new president. Users on social media seemed to support her decision according to the Good Morning America article, which featured supportive tweets. One of which read “ Exiting the White House, @NancyPelosi is wearing her Orange You Sorry You Started This Fight Coat....

  When Amy Coney Barrett was being sworn in I vividly remember watching different political talk shows give their opinions on her political views and her attire that day. The day of her swearing in she chose to wear what described by the Washington Post as “... a sleek magenta dress, a pearl necklace, and a black mask.”. This look was criticized heavily and picked apart by political journalists and people on Twitter. Some felt that her look was too casual while others felt that her appearance shouldn’t be discussed at all. In the same Washington Post article, a female attorney gave her opinion on Barrett’s outfit by stating “ No male judge would be dressed in less than correct courtroom attire. It’s inappropriately casual.”. However when another woman was asked about her opinion on Barrett’s attire she simply stated “Who cares what she wears?”. Various people weighed in on Twitter and there were many people on both sides of the spectrum. A Forbes news article written about the cont...

 

  My blog’s theme is how women in politics are treated differently by the media than men, and I choose this topic because while watching and reading the news I have often noticed that womens’ appearances are analyzed more closely than mens’ when running for public office. Political candidates are already under a microscope when running for office but then the focus is even more increased on women as their fashion and physical appearance becomes a hyper focus for the media. For example I will specifically analyze previous articles written about Stacey Abrams and Amy Coney Barrett when they were in the public eye. This topic is relevant because during each election season news articles and journalists discuss female candidates appearances and rarely ever focus on this topic for the male candidates. As you follow my blog post I encourage you to pay close attention to how news articles and journalists discuss womens’ appearances more than men during election season.