Sunday, April 7, 2013

Be Careful Who You Call Good-Looking

Earlier this week, President Obama was pressured to apologize for a remark he made regarding the appearance of California Attorney general, Kamala Harris. What did he say that got everyone up in arms? He said that Harris was the best looking attorney general in the country. I'm still trying to figure what was so bad about his comment. Our country has gotten so politically correct, that it's now an insult to compliment someone.

This kind of thing amazes me. We've got Little Kim over in North Korea trying to figure out how to launch missiles at us but people in this country are upset because the President gives a casual compliment to an old friend. Hey look, I'm certainly no fan of Obama. I'm only using him in this latest example to illustrate my point. 

Some people claim that Obama's remarks were "sexist". Really? What's so sexist about calling someone good looking? Now, if he went the Bill Clinton route, and said, "Damn! She's hot as balls! I'd sure like to hit that!"...Now, that would be sexist.

Hey look, I can understand, in certain situations, where referring to someone's looks might be controversial. For instance, it's probably not good to tell a coworker that he or she is good looking. It always has the potential to open up the door to a sexual harassment case. I normally wouldn't even mention a "he" in this situation but I saw how Michael Douglas got shafted by Demi Moore in "Disclosure".

But back to Obama's situation. His type of remark will usually draw criticism, especially from women, because it gives the insinuation that a woman's success is, at least partially, due to her good looks. And although we all know that this scenario does indeed exist at times, it's one of those things that people just won't talk about. Let's face it, right or wrong, good looks do have their benefits.

But here's a contrasting scenario for you, Suppose, just suppose, that Obama, Clinton or anyone else for that matter, said something like, "Although the Attorney General has a face that could make an onion cry, she's an inspiration to countless ugly people around the world.. A long fall out of the ugly tree doesn't mean that you can't achieve the highest levels of success.." Would this be considered sexist? Could it somehow be considered a compliment? Or would it just  be wrong? See how confusing this is??

As most of you know, I don't defend Obama very often, But I definitely think this recent incident with the California Attorney General was way overblown. Let's stop nit-picking and move on to real issues....

kw

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