Hilary's Résumé Complete with Hair Advice

We constantly discuss in class the difference between descriptions of male and female politicians. Hilary Clinton, of course, was perhaps one of the most targeted female politicians due to her high profile and presidential campaign. With the incessant talk about her pantsuits, her looks and her physical traits over her political accomplishments, one might think that journalists would have nothing else to say about what she's wearing and that readers would tire from the exhausted correlation between her competence and her femininity.

The Washington Post published an interesting article this weekend about Hilary Clinton's smaller global accomplishments, highlighting work she has done in smaller, less industrious countries, some of which have not seen American diplomats in decades. The article is fairly well written, and I believe could be applies to a male politician. Only two instances reference her attire, but I took issue with one, which presents itself in the fourth paragraph of a five page article.

[Audience members of a Clinton Global Initiative speech] wanted to defend her, to rave about her, to say how sick they were of people talking about her hair, and then to talk about her hair, which, several men and women offered, definitely looked best in a simple chignon.

 I found the tone of this comment interesting; while the writer acknowledges the strong desire to stray from Hilary's physical appearances, she still includes what some said about her hair. The comment seems tongue in cheek, but does it help reinforce that an article simply can't be written about Hilary without any mention of how she looked that day?