Hillary's cross to bear: The Female Factor

Maureen Dowd summed up in her column this week what I've noticed for a while: when men compete with women they often resort to attacks on their personal looks as radio personality Rush Limbaugh (no looker himself, eh ladies?) did recently in regards to Hilary Clinton. I call it the Female Factor, and it didnt' start, and won't end, with Hillary running for president of the United States

Nor is this just a conservative thing, though there does seem to be more anger toward women who step out of the "traditional" roles, such as homemaker, secretary, trophy wife or First Lady, from that side of the political spectrum. Nope, liberals are just as likely to slam women they don't like with personal insults about their character or looks. Just witness the words people use to describe Ann Coulter whenever she says something calculatedly shocking. You know, the words so mean and nasty and gender-specific that I can't write them on a blog sponsored by a family newspaper.

No point in complaining that it's not fair. It just is. Women are judged by their looks and their age often before their accomplishments and their character, because it works to make us feel bad. We understand our attractiveness is often used as a measure of our worth, and even if reject it intellectually, we can't help but be affected by the truth of it. This isn't likely to change any time soon. If there's a bright spot is that lookism is starting to be applied to men as well. Not the best kind of parity, but we takes what we can gets.

Speaking of which, Hillary's possible presidential opponent seems to be putting on a little weight and losing even more hair. Stress eating? Hormonal fluctuation? This could be fun.