Vogue’s Shallow Coverage Of Nikki Haley
This month’s Vogue, features a cover story about South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. As you can imagine, the article pays far more attention to her style than her work.
This isn’t the first time Name It. Change It. has taken notice of fashion magazines covering women politicians. Women politicians have landed appearances in fashion magazines Elle and Vogue for quite some time now (check out Vogue’s slideshow as a matter of fact). In the past we’ve seen Kristin Gillibrand asked how much weight she lost because “the readers of Vogue will want to know”, Hillary Clinton described as a “good girl” who “played by the rules”, and Christine Quinn’s article opened with an anecdote about a constituent asking her about losing weight. It’s not a shock that fashion magazines – like other media we know (ahem Huffington Post)—pay more attention to women politicians appearances and personal aspects rather than their actual work..
But it’s not as if fashion magazine never cover male politicians. Before we dive into Vogue’s story on Nikki Haley let’s review an article they published last year about Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah and a 2012 presidential candidate.
Yes, it’s a fashion magazine, and some description of the candidate’s clothing is probably impossible to avoid. But it’s worth comparing and contrasting that when talking about Jon Huntsman Vogue writer Jacob Weisberg mentioned his “crisp white shirt” and how he’s “slender, athletic, and stylish, with a winning smile.”
Meanwhile in this month’s Vogue, Gov. Haley is said to be “earnest and stern, smartly turned out in a black-and-white ruffled jacket, black pencil skirt, and platform stilettos.”
But aside from examining how attractive Haley and Huntsman are as people, there is a major difference in how Vogue treats them as politicians. While writing about Huntsman Vogue gives a long a detailed account of what he has accomplished in his career as a politician.
In office, he took progressive stands on immigration and the environment, signing on to a Western-states agreement to reduce carbon emissions. His big emphasis was on economic growth and job creation. Cutting the state income tax from 7 to 5 percent helped fuel business investment that by 2007 brought Utah’s jobless rate down to 2.3 percent—the lowest in its history.
Meanwhile Cox’s article about Haley falls short in mentioning any of her accomplishments—or even setbacks—in her role as governor. In fact how she got elected is apparently a mystery.
For nearly 232 years, South Carolinians reliably selected a white male to be their governor, but somehow, in 2010, they chose Haley: 38, Indian-American, a woman.
Yeah, “somehow.”
Most of Vogue’s article is written in a “first women” frame, meaning it paints her as a novelty and an anomaly. Cox writes that she is “fit and attractive, with a face free of worry lines” and “looks even younger than her age” and how she “aptly” uses Facebook since she is the “country’s youngest governor.”
Is Nikki Haley an accomplished governor of a state or is she only remarkable for being “young” and “fit?” We’ve seen how Vogue, even in its shallowness can still somehow write about Jon Huntsman’s political accomplishments but when it comes to Nikki Haley her appearance and demeanor become noteworthy but the acts she’s done as governor become insignificant.
Published by Kate McCarthy on 04/24/2012