Did Newsweek choose Michele Bachmann cover photo to make her ‘look crazy’?

Aug 08, 2011 18:01


Another Newsweek cover controversy is brewing--and once again, it involves women.


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newsweek, michele bachmann, sexism, photography

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screamingintune August 8 2011, 22:34:04 UTC
I'm trying to see what's wrong with the picture? I didn't see the inside one with the devil horns but the cover one just looks like Michele Bachmann usually looks to me?

And frankly, Michele Bachmann is pretty out there. I'd classify her as a nut just like I'd classify Rick Santorum as a nut. It's not sexism. It's shit like the fact that she has a family that believes you can "pray the gay away" and her assertion that we need to investigate members of Congress for "un-American activities" and all the assorted nutty shit she espouses.

not defending Newsweek because I know they're trash, like that Diana shit was awful, but I don't really see what's wrong with the picture. It's pretty straightforward as a photo.

not sure about "the queen of rage" as a title though, that's gendering something that doesn't need to be gendered.

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pragmatic_chimp August 8 2011, 22:40:02 UTC
You're probably going to get a lot of comments that disagree with you, but I'm going to go ahead and say that I think you're 100% correct.

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rex_dart August 8 2011, 22:42:18 UTC
ia about the picture. I mean, I've seen this woman a lot, in photos and in videos, and that cover photo is... pretty much how she looks all the time, isn't it? I can see where they're getting the "she looks crazy!" from, but that's what Michele Bachmann looks like.

As far as the sexism is concerned, I'm always annoyed by how the media's portrayal of women only seems to become an issue when the woman being portrayed is herself a notorious misogynist.

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screamingintune August 8 2011, 22:47:33 UTC
yeah I mean what are they supposed to do? photoshop Michele Bachmann to not look like Michele Bachmann?

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suthrncan August 9 2011, 01:19:50 UTC
Word!!

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captain_emily August 8 2011, 23:09:17 UTC
I mean, I've seen this woman a lot, in photos and in videos, and that cover photo is... pretty much how she looks all the time, isn't it? I can see where they're getting the "she looks crazy!" from, but that's what Michele Bachmann looks like.

Exactly. It's not a very flattering picture, but that's pretty much her standard look there.

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amyura August 9 2011, 00:47:53 UTC
Exactly. How many offensive photographic portrayals have there been about Michelle Obama? How many do we hear people getting outraged about?

How about this? It's all over conservative LJ-members' profiles as something to giggle about:


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roseofjuly August 9 2011, 02:17:33 UTC
Not only is it sexist, but at the base level they picked the best and most photoshopped pictures of GOP women and used the worst candid photos of Dem women. Not that it matters, because the message we're sending here is...that their looks are important? I mean, these are politicians we're talking about here. Hillary Clinton is a BAMF, I don't care if anyone thinks she looks conventionally attractive. She's not spewing hateful shit like Malkin or Coulter, and that's a good thing.

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amyura August 9 2011, 01:31:31 UTC
To be fair, though, Bachmann is in the news a lot more than Santorum, period. She holds elective office; he doesn't. She's got way better numbers than he does. In short, a sitting member of Congress who's the de facto leader of the Tea Party movement has a much better shot at the presidency than a guy who couldn't get re-elected in his own state and is best known for the manufactured alternate definition of his name. Back when he blamed the clergy sex abuse scandal on the fact that Boston is close to Cambridge and Cambridge is liberal, he got, deservedly so, LOADS of shit for it. Since then, has he done anything besides announce for the presidency? NPR ran a story last month about the Google problem, but there just isn't that much beyond all those lists of crazy offensive things he's said.

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txvoodoo August 9 2011, 03:35:41 UTC
It's not disproportionate to their prominence, though. Santorum is not a current elected official, Bachmann is. He's a total nobody.

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screamingintune August 8 2011, 22:49:13 UTC
I can definitely get on board with the idea that Bachmann's... let's be polite and say, esoteric beliefs are being sensationalized because she's a woman, but I really don't think this picture is sexist.

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chaya August 8 2011, 22:56:09 UTC
95% of the 'Bachman is crazy' stuff makes no connection to hormones or womanly emotions, and only draws its conclusions from her bizarre candid photos and lack of logic. (And lack of history. And lack of sense.) Am I missing something?

(And I know that using the term 'crazy' has its own issues connected to it which shouldn't go undiscussed. It's just that it doesn't seem to be a statement made because of any 'sensitivity' or 'over-emotional' quality in Bachmann.)

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