Fashion knows no political party, and neither does picking on women for what they wear. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, speaking at a discussion of her new book “Can’t Is Not an Option,” told the crowd at the American Enterprise Institute that she fields plenty of criticism for her clothing and accessory choices.
“The thing that surprises me is how much people won’t let you forget what you look like,” said Haley, who was called a housewife and an adulteress during local and state-wide campaigns in South Carolina. After an announcement that Au’some Candy would be opening a factory in Sumter, South Carolina, “one of the stories that they talked about was yeah, we got all these jobs, and did you see the governor’s shoes?” Haley said. “I was shocked by that.”
It’s not just shoes. “The number of people who email me and ask, why don’t you wear earrings?” Haley said. “You should wear earrings. You don’t look finished.” The governor can’t do much to appease the earring-hungry people of the Palmetto State. “It’s because I’m allergic to metal,” she explained. “I can’t do that.”
“It goes back to not having enough women in office,” Haley continued. “Hillary Clinton went through that. They talked about her hair; they talked about her clothes. Sarah Palin went through that. They talked about her glasses; they talked about her suits.” Her advice to other female pols: “You just have to laugh it off. What we have to do is work a little bit harder.”
Not that Haley doesn’t occasionally feel like using her much-discussed heels for a higher purpose. “I’ve got a completely male senate,” the governor said. She gestured to her tan peep-toe stilettos. “Do I want to use these for kicking? Sometimes I do.”
