Newly-minted White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was recently cornered into clarifying a seemingly-innocuous statement about his colleague Sarah Huckabee Sanders after feminists reacted in outrage.
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Scaramucci praised Sanders as an “incredibly authentic” and “incredibly warm person,” expressing that he desires to do “everything he can to make her better at that podium.”
He even went on to disclose that he gave Sanders the bigger office because she’s “taking the hits from the press,” but Twitter reacted in horror when he complimented the makeup artist both he and Sanders had used earlier that day.
“The only thing I ask, Sarah—Sarah, if you’re watching, I loved the hair and makeup person we had on Friday, so I’d like to continue to use the hair and makeup person,” Scaramucci remarked, though some commentators were outraged, including Jezebel writer Lauren Evans.
Although his statement was pretty clear from the start, Scaramucci later clarified that he was referring to his own hair and makeup, humorously remarking that he needs all the help he can get, though this wasn’t enough to appease Evans.
“It’s long been apparent that in Trump’s world (of which Moochy is firmly a part), women are only as good as their appearance,” Evans suggested, though later referred to “Moochy” as “a bulldog that underwent an ill-advised facelift” and a “cheaply embalmed corpse.”
Evans, simultaneously trashing Scaramucci for his (incorrectly assumed) comments on Sanders’ appearances while mocking his own, perfectly exemplifies the liberal hypocrisy on all-things identity politics; it’s OK to degrade those who are perceived as being part of the “privileged” group, but not vice-versa, though neither should be acceptable.
Evans sees no problem with insulting her male peers, but is appalled when one of them appears to comment on a female’s appearance. The fact of the matter is that no person should be mocked on the basis of appearances, race, gender, or anything of the sort, and it’s shocking that Evans seems to disagree (at least in practice.)
And to make the presumption that everyone in “Trump’s circle” values women solely by “their appearance” is simply preposterous. After all, his right-hand man and was just scorned by the left-wing media for saying he prefers not to have one-on-one dinners with female colleagues out of respect for his wife.
Others in the Trump Administration, such as Tillerson, Price, and Zinke, appear to be nothing but devoted family-men proudly serving their country. Argument by association, as Evans so flippantly abuses, would make everyone in politics (and Washington) a bad person.
Plus, if Evans were to have actually listened to the entirety of the interview, she’d see that Scaramucci attempted to do nothing but praise Sanders, as he had done during his first press briefing, when he repeatedly expressed that he looked forward to learning from and working alongside her.
Then again on Wednesday, he tweeted that Sanders was “killing it from the podium,” heaping more praise on his female colleague.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, every employee almost regardless of profession is expected to “dress presentably,” a standard that ought to be exemplified in the person responsible for publicly defending the leader of the free world for several hours a day.
Frankly, part of the job, if not all of it, is talking smooth and looking good, the latter of which former press secretary Sean Spicer was criticized for by his boss, but did anyone call that sexist?
In the professional world, appearances matter, and neither criticism nor compliments need to be taken as sexist.
