Attention to Pelosi's wardrobe wears thin for some

NEW YORK — "The emperor has no clothes," House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi once famously said about President Bush.

Well, actually he has some fairly decent ones, but it's been Pelosi's clothes — stylish, well-chosen and nicely cut, of the Armani variety — that have garnered attention since she became the most powerful woman in American politics earlier this month.

Why do the media focus on Pelosi's clothes and not those of our president, or any male in Washington? Is it inherently sexist, detracting attention from her obvious accomplishments? Or does it merely reflect that, while clothes matter for both men and women, female attire is more noticeable, more expressive and more interesting?

One person who finds the attention to Pelosi's clothes "over the top" is Eleanor Smeal, one of the country's most recognizable feminists.

"Yes, she dresses impeccably and wears clothes beautifully," says Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "But this is a very accomplished woman. Why wasn't there more attention to her achievement of breaking through the marble ceiling (and becoming the first female speaker in history)?"

There is one positive aspect, Smeal says: "At least it's introducing the speaker to the country. Imagine if they didn't like her clothes!"

One scholar of journalistic ethics argues that a politician's attire is fair game in news coverage — but only under certain circumstances.

"As a society, we look much more carefully at women's appearance than men," says Kelly McBride, a faculty member at the Poynter Institute in Florida. "At the same time, the clothing options for women are so much greater. As journalists, I don't see how we can ignore this."

The task for the media, McBride says, is to do it in proper context, and in a way that doesn't reinforce stereotypes. "It's safer to say, here's the reality: In our society we judge women by different standards — and then dig in to the nuances of that," she says. What's wrong, though, is to inject casual references to Pelosi's clothes into every news story, "which would reinforce the notion that women should be judged on appearance."

One extensive analysis of Pelosi's clothing came from Pulitzer prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan of The Washington Post, who often writes about the attire of major Washington figures — including a much-noticed piece on Vice President Dick Cheney's casual outerwear at a Holocaust memorial service in Poland last year.

Of the blue-gray Armani suit that Pelosi wore at her post-victory news conference, Givhan wrote that she appeared "polished and tasteful in front of the cameras. It is tempting to even go so far as to say that she looked chic, which in the world beyond Washington would be considered a compliment." Of outgoing speaker Dennis Hastert, whose rumpled suits have also been noted in the press, she wrote that there was "nothing chic or particularly polished" about him.

The article appeared in the paper's Style section, not in the political coverage — the kind of context and placement to which McBride was referring. To David Brady, professor of political science at Stanford University, attention to Pelosi's clothes is a bit silly, but harmless in the long run.

"The fact is she's an attractive woman and she wears nice clothes — and she's got money," said Brady, deputy director of the Hoover Institution. "... You've got a country where entertainment channels are more heavily watched than news shows, where people care about Kevin Federline and Britney Spears. This is a magnification of that silliness. In the long run it won't harm her effectiveness."