In December, I wrote a piece titled, “In Defense of Michelle Fields, And Women Who Want to Look Like Women,” after Michelle was being attacked by a writer at FishBowl DC for simply dressing like a woman. I encourage you to read that post for more background on my arguments. A few months later, and here we go again, but, this time, it’s a woman being attacked by someone who is supposed to be on her side.
Last weekend, Hot Air’s Tina Korbe and Ed Morrissey sat down for an on-camera interview with presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. Stacy McCain, a blogger, saw the video and took the opportunity to attack Tina not for the questions she asked, but for what she was wearing.
Our keen-eyed readers will note that at the 0:28 mark of the video, Miss Korbe gives a little tug at the hem of her skirt and, not to get all Melissa Clouthier about it or anything, some folks might say that’s kind of a telltale clue that your skirt’s too doggone short.
OK, so how this came to my attention: Tuesday I blogged about Melissa’s criticism of the dress and behavior of some young ladies at CPAC and, as I said, I wanted to be responsible without being too judgmental. That is to say, I hesitate to judge a lady’s morals merely because she feels obliged to follow contemporary fashion.
For example, I think tattoos and pierced bellybuttons are two of the tackiest things in the world, but I’m pretty sure not every woman with tattoos and a pierced bellybutton is a whore.
Most of them? Sure, but not all of them.
Similarly, short skirts and exposed cleavage do not necessarily signal that a woman is up for some action with any dude who’ll give her the price of another hit of methamphetamine. It is true that many hookers dress that way, but not every woman who dresses that way is a hooker.’
First off, there is a time and a place to be wearing a suit. Dressing professionally gives you more credibility and, quite frankly, is the only appropriate way to approach a number of work situations. That being said, what Stacy McCain missed was that Tina Korbe was wearing a suit in the video he is criticizing. Yes, her skirt was short sitting down. She probably should have thought about the situation before sitting down, but regardless, when standing up, her skirt hit knees' length and her shirt reached all the way to her neck with a jacket over the top. She obviously knew there was a problem because she attempted to pull it down, not hike it up. Every woman has her terrifying fashion moments. She looked great, and she rocked the interview with Rick Santorum. In addition to failing to see the substance in the interview, during his sexist and inappropriate rant essentially accusing Tina of being a hooker and a meth addict, Stacy failed to mention in his hit piece that Tina is actually pretty damn good at her job. In 2011, she had the top Hot Air post of the year.
Following up on the hooker tattoo comment, Dana Loesh, another successful political blogger and CNN contributor, has a tattoo on her arm. I wonder what Stacy thinks about her?
Stacy is giving young conservative women another reason not to jump into the political world. Women already deal with enough attacks from the Left, and now it seems Stacy is perfectly content with joining them in their baseless, superficial, non-intellectual arguments in order to distract away from the real issues facing the country. Stacy McCain’s attacks on Tina are no different than the Leftist attacks on Sarah Palin during the 2008 election cycle when they made a big hoopla out of her clothing choices. He is no better than them; instead, he is the same.
As conservatives, we’re all individuals. It’s time to start treating us as such, rather than trying to box women into what a “conservative woman” should look like. When is the last time you saw eight-time New York Times best-selling author Ann Coulter in a pantsuit? Oh wait, never, and she still gets the job done. But while we’re on the topic of dress code, should I start talking about the way the majority of bloggers were dressed during CPAC? Let’s just say they weren’t in suits, and many looked like they had just rolled out of bed. Maybe because the majority of bloggers in bloggers row--where Tina worked for most of the time during CPAC--were male, Stacy decided not to comment.
So why did Stacy decide to attack Tina? Was it really because he didn’t like her skirt? Or was it because she was more qualified for a Hot Air position and got hired over him?
“When Hot Air first advertised that it was planning to hire a new blogger, I immediately smelled a rat.”
Something was extremely fishy, then, when a friend called to tell me he’d seen a “help wanted” ad from Hot Air posted in an online D.C. jobs-bank forum. My friend asked if was I planning to apply for it.
Obviously not: I was already a Green Room contributor, and if Hot Air wanted to hire me full-time, they didn’t have to place an ad. Ed’s got my number, I said. He could have called.
This was obvious enough, and I thought about all the other Green Room contributors – including a few friends of mine — who were also obviously about to be passed over for this full-time gig. Believe it or not, some of them actually applied for the job, although I knew that the mere fact that Hot Air was advertising this opening meant that the Green Room contributors (all of them) had already been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Shortly after my initial conversation with that friend, one of my fellow rejects from the Green Room called to talk about the advertised job, and I predicted, “They’re gonna hire a chick. Somebody with the ‘face for Fox,’ a candidate for the Red Eye leg-chair they can use to ‘brand’ the blog.”
Stacy, dirty jokes aren’t funny and you aren’t funny either. At the same time you accused Tina of wanting to show her “hoo hah” to Rick Santorum, you were blogging about how “hawt” someone else’s fiancé is, which is not only disrespectful to the woman, but her man too. At best, you have a double standard. Do you want women to be “hawt” or intelligent? They can be both. In Tina’s case, and the case of many conservative women, she is beautiful, intellectual and good at her job. Stacy McCain has been obsessed with Tina Korbe and attacking attractive young women for awhile, but this time, he went way over the line. As I said before, in defense of women who want to look like women, I for one think it's time to embrace conservative feminism, not tear our own women apart for being attractive. Also, let's take a look at a harsh reality. Attractive people do well on television. Not everyone gets a trophy in the category of good looking.