A Republican male says what they all really think
by digby
A Republican state lawmaker wrote in a blog post last week that U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.) will likely lose her re-election race in November because she is “ugly as sin” and “looks matter in politics.”
The New Hampshire blog Miscellany Blue first reported that New Hampshire state Rep. Steve Vaillancourt (R) compared Kuster to a “drag queen” in his lengthy post and said she will probably lose to Republican challenger Marilinda Garcia, who is “truly attractive.” He writes that his blog post is politically relevant because he “seem[s] to recall” some new polling that shows “an attractive candidate can have as much as a seven to ten point advantage over a less attractive (or even an unattractive) candidate.”
“Let’s be honest,” Vaillancourt writes. “Does anyone not believe that Congressman Annie Kuster is as ugly as sin? And I hope I haven’t offended sin. If looks really matter and if this race is at all close, give a decided edge to Marilinda Garcia.”
The sweet spot of attractiveness for a female candidate, Vaillancourt says, is attractive, but not “so drop dead gorgeous as to intimidate those watching.” He believes Garcia is exactly that attractive.
Kuster, meanwhile, reminds Vaillancourt of a drag queens at a bar he sometimes passes in Montreal.
“Sad to say, but the drag queens are more atrractive [sic] than Annie Kuster … not that there’s anything wrong with that,” he writes. “I’ve promised myself for years not to use this anecdote, but after seeing the story about the seven to ten point boost for the attractive, the story has political relevance.”
I wish I could say that Democratic men (or libertarian men) would never stoop this low. But they have and they do. And hey, some women too, particularly on the bomb-throwing right. This form of sexism is among the most common — and the most difficult to deal with. It’s quite powerful:
March survey of 1,500 likely voters nationwide found that no matter what is said about a female political candidate’s appearance, it has a negative impact on what potential voters think of her.
“When voters heard that coverage focused on a neutral description or a positive description or a negative description of the woman candidate’s appearance, it hurt her likability and it made voters less likely to vote for her,” the groups report of the study, which was conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Bay Consulting.
“Appearance coverage damages voters’ perceptions of the woman candidate on all key traits we tested, but the greatest average losses are on being in touch, being likable, confident, effective and qualified,” they said.
In short, the moment a woman contending for power within the system of power gets talked about as if she’s contending for top marks within the system of beauty, it diminishes her standing in the other power realm.
Not that it will hurt his career since men are not held to the same standard, but as with so many who love to make these sorts of comments, George Clooney he ain’t:
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