Power & Still Discriminated

Brought to my attention was the fact that not only are women being put down all over the world because of their looks, the United States media is making sure that they bring down some of the most powerful women in country. Some of those women consisting of Condoleezza Rice, Oprah Winfrey, and Sarah Palin. What does this say about us as a country? If we can't take some of the most powerful women in the U.S. seriously, how can we take any woman in the United States seriously?

I came across an article about Condoleezza Rice that shocked me. Since she was the first African American Woman to take position as Secretary of State this had her at a disadvantage because she was new and she was mostly surrounded by Caucasian males. She was very successful in this position and it proves that she is a very powerful woman. The downfall of our media is that even though she has a lot of great things to say, America can't seem to get passed what she looks like. The article that I read was more concerned with her "clothed all in black, she caused both fear and sexual excitement in her long, sleek, military-style coat with band collar and gold buttons, sexy short skirt, and knee-high leather boots with three-inch stiletto heels" (BongoNews1). That statement which comes straight from the article proves how shallow the media can be.

That last example was leading up to another important and powerful woman that has to go through constant fire from the media is Oprah Winfrey. As everyone knows Oprah has an apparent fluctuation of her weight but the fact that the media could careless about all that she's done for many humans around the world and more about how she looks or how much weight she needs to lose. News flash: The fact that a woman gains a little weight doesn't make her any less reliable or powerful. Even being at her biggest weight, 237, she was still being successful and continuing with her talk show and helping out everyone. Although people don't like the fact that she "can't stay skinny" and continually gains her weight back. Even the Enquirer, which is usually exaggerated stories, becomes very rude towards Oprah on one of their covers. At one point in her weight gain they even had Larry King talk to her team of fitness and health experts because America is based solely on your looks.

Lastly we have Sarah Palin who was mostly judged on her looks during her campaign with John McCain. This powerful woman was completely opposite of the ones mentioned earlier because she played into what the media wanted her to look like. It is rumor that Sarah has had dermal fillers to make her lips larger, botox done to make her look younger, and that she either had surgery for a breast augmentation to make her breast look bigger and her mid section look smaller or that she uses body shapers. The sad thing about the rumor about her getting bigger breast in order to look smaller started on a political gossip site Wonkette. The fact that Sarah plays into the media is mind blowing. The internet even has a website dedicated to Sarah Palin Jokes and there is even a section there dedicated to her appearance. One joke that specifically stuck out to me was one that Jay Leno said, "Hugh Hefner asked Sarah Palin to pose as a centerfold in Playboy. She declined, saying that at the moment, she was too busy posing as a Vice-Presidential candidate." This joke is clearly stating how Palin gave into the media and basically did anything that she thought would get her more known through the media.

Are you starting to see the pattern? In America we seem to have tunnel vision that skinny and young are the only things that are beautiful due to the media, who is willing to put anyone down. Clearly there are still women who give into the media which, unknowingly, harms how women are viewed throughout all media.