Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield on Wednesday dressed all in black. She was wearing a black skirt that hit just above the knee, and it was topped with a black coat that fell to mid-calf. The coat, with its seven gold buttons running down the front and its band collar, called to mind a Marine's dress uniform or the "save humanity" ensemble worn by Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix."
As Rice walked out to greet the troops, the coat blew open in a rather swashbuckling way to reveal the top of a pair of knee-high boots. The boots had a high, slender heel that is not particularly practical. But it is a popular silhouette because it tends to elongate and flatter the leg. In short, the boots are sexy.
Rice boldly eschewed the typical fare chosen by powerful American women on the world stage. She was not wearing a bland suit with a loose-fitting skirt and short boxy jacket with a pair of sensible pumps. She did not cloak her power in photogenic hues, a feminine brooch and a non-threatening aesthetic. Rice looked as though she was prepared to talk tough, knock heads and do a freeze-frame "Matrix" jump kick if necessary. Who wouldn't give her ensemble a double take -- all the while hoping not to rub her the wrong way?
Rice's coat and boots speak of sex and power -- such a volatile combination, and one that in political circles rarely leads to anything but scandal. When looking at the image of Rice in Wiesbaden, the mind searches for ways to put it all into context. It turns to fiction, to caricature. To shadowy daydreams. Dominatrix! It is as though sex and power can only co-exist in a fantasy. When a woman combines them in the real world, stubborn stereotypes have her power devolving into a form that is purely sexual.
| Continue the rest of Robin Givhan's registration-required Washington Post article "Condoleezza Rice's Commanding Clothes" (or track the Blogdex or Technorati mentions)
Also: "The notion of exceptionalism buries us cyclically," "'We've learned to say Condoleezza. And you just can't get more ghetto than Condoleezza,'" "Sides of Rice," "I don't talk the president into almost anything, all right?," "Condi says I'd like to know completely what others so discreetly talk about," "Condoleezza, Condoleezza, men have named you" and "Jackson and Powell top list of most important Black leaders"
Elsewhere: Baldilocks' "Snazzy threads" and Prometheus 6's "Must be Condi Day" and "It's not Condi Day, it's Condi Week"
posted in articles on February 25, 2005 5:21 PM | t (0)
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Nothing about Condo-LYING Rice impreses me. Nothing at all! In fact she symbolizes everything I should fear. To many eyes she may look good. I see someone who completely self absorbed. She seems to believe that her ascendance to power represents something for the masses to celebrate.Hardly, she symbolizes what this generation of black leaders are about. Self promotion, materialism vs spiriutual ascendancy, she cares about herself. The black vote has been tampered with, blacks are brutalized & dying at the hands of the"law". The gaps in lending/credit,home owning,medical care you name it grow. While Condo-LYING Rice has all the amenities of a true house negro. Make no doubts if this was slave time, she would wield the whip for master. She addresses no issues that the down trodden experience in this country. She is sickening to me. So does Armstrong UNCLE TOM Williams, Colon KISSING Powell, Justice Clarence HEAD SERVANT Thomas & any other so called leaders who look the other way as thier people, any people are being exploited & opressed. Fuck em!
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