What do Belinda Stronach and Orly Levy-Abekasis have in common? Is it the fact they are successful and outspoken politicians in their countries? Nope. They are ‘hot’. And apparently that’s crucial in politics, according to a Sydney radio station. Hot politicians. Not intelligent, wise, energetic, strategic or any of the other qualities you look for in politics (and business). Hot.
If you are genetically blessed and or take pride in how you look then don’t bother building a career where you want to gain respect… well that’s essentially what the TripleM station is saying with their “World’s young attractive politicians” article
Showing class all the way, they must have had their journalists scouring image databases to find the sexiest pictures of each of the young female candidates, working from the basis that this is what their audience wants to see.
Now there is no shame in profiling women in politics. There is, however, something called distaste when you make a mockery of women whose career is focused on working for political principles and change — by profiling them purely based on their youth and attractiveness.
I read the article a few times, looking for links to the career bio and achievements of each of these women. I looked in vain… their abilities, skills and achievements seem to be irrelevant to the creators of what amounts to a political Tinder file. I’m relieved TripleM didn’t descend to the depths of asking readers to ‘swipe right to vote’.
But you can however open up the images into a separate tab. Just in case you needed to have a closer look at any of them.
I will give the crew at TripleM credit though, for their extremely obvious token attempt at throwing in some men (fully clothed, mind you) to balance it out. I am sure they didn’t want to come across sexist.
