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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFoxy Ladies -- Why one network applies so much makeup
I was in the break room making coffee, and ran across this item from September. Just thought I'd share?m95yky
Fox no doubt has several reasons for pursuing the look one guest described as Fox glam. The advent of high-definition TV screens is probably one of them: saturated colors (including, conveniently, red) work well in HD. And then theres the management. Gabriel Sherman, a journalist working on a book about Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, notes makeups unique role in Ailess creation myth, which dates to a fateful encounter with Richard Nixon. When Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy, in 1960, many said that his fate had been sealed by bad makeup during a televised debate. Before an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show seven years later, Nixon groused about having to stoop so low as to go on television; Ailes, the executive producer for the show, persuaded him to embrace the medium, and the makeup. Nixon hired him to work on his next presidential campaign, and won.
Ailes, Sherman points out, under-stands that while TV news may be journalism, it is also entertainment. He works like a Broadway producer, says Sherman (indeed, at one point Ailes was a Broadway producer). That, Sherman says, is why Fox sets look like stage sets: The colors are brighter, the camera angles faster. Everything pops on the screen more, everything is eye candy.
But the best explanation for Fox glam may be the channels largely conservative audience. An argument can be made that conservative women are typically less squeamish than progressive ones about embracing what the sociologist Catherine Hakim calls erotic capital, otherwise known as using your looks to get ahead. See the gleeful Laura Ingraham/Ann Coulter school of beautyology, which holds that the angrier and better-coiffed you are, the more attention you will receive. The Republican Party welcomes looks in a womanMichele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Nikki Haleyand so does Fox.
The media critic Jack Shafer adds that the women you see on Fox are not just winsome, lavishly cosmeticized women, but winsome women paired with older men. He says the network almost appears to be taking a page from the theory of evolutionary psychology, which argues that women are attracted to prosperous (often older) men, and these men are attracted to women whose youth and curves signal fertility.
The men are kind of frumpy older men, Sherman agrees, paired with hyper-feminine women. That kind of kinetic energy between the sexes is one of the reasons Fox is successful. Oftentimes the older male hostsBill OReilly, Sean Hannityin the prime time, at night, are paired with women, debating politics, and the women are generally much younger It almost goes back to 1940s Hollywood. For guests, the Hollywood screwball routine can be unnerving. It was for Nell Minow, a critic of inflated CEO pay, who was taken aback when a producer urged her to attack the masculinity of her debate partner.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/foxy-ladies/309054/
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)UTUSN
(70,708 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)so what?
What the hell is 'hyper-feminine'?
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)I made room for you.
or ?
trumad
(41,692 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)I always think of a little miss pageant in the south when I see photos of the Fox Fembots - troweled and tarted up and prancing around in spandex.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)[img][/img]
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)Poster pushed me down and took my popcorn!
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)[img][/img] I'll share. [img][/img]
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... the rot inside.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)The paint reassures them that she wants to please them.
Care Acutely
(1,370 posts)BY JOVE YOU'VE GOT IT!
Couldn't agree more. It also explains just part of why they hate, Hate, HATE Hillary. She's said publicly that if she doesn't have time or feel like makeup she doesn't worry about it anymore. Basically, "screw the paint, I've got a brain."
TheCowsCameHome
(40,168 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)Care Acutely
(1,370 posts)If they are not a young, painted Barbie Doll, they should just go eat worms because men still run everything, and they like hot chicks, who cares about ability, education, professionalism, intelligence, work ethics, talent, and I dunno . . . human rights?
Yeah, I've seen that here a couple times here. WAY MORE outside of DU, but sadly, I've seen hints of it here. I guess DU is like any other community. A few bad apples, and all that.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)Most newscasts look like second/third marriages . . . or affairs . . . especially on Repub networks like Faux or CNBC. Kind of explains the appeal to unevolved Repub guys.
RomneyLies
(3,333 posts)Historic NY
(37,451 posts)in his SUN newspaper spreads.
some people just call it porn.
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)Everyone on TV uses tons of make-up, male and female. Have since the begining of the technology.
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)it certainly appears that it "is" unique to Fox....
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)on every news network and all the major broadcasters. On every morning show. Every. Single. One.
Huh....
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)huh, indeed........
Soledad O'Brien doesn't look like a streetwalker
Tamron Hall doesn't look like an overmade tart
Melissa Harris Perry doesn't look like a circus clown
Alex Wagner doesn't look like a slut
Rachel Maddow neither
I've never seen any of those women overly made up and/or wearing very short skirts.
P.S. -- there's a huge difference between "makeup" and "overly made up"
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)Right now on CNN, whoever that is is wearing a quite sexy dress. The two presenters on NBC. Every channel I checked had a female in a relatively short, snug dress in a bright color.
I'll admit that as a male with no understanding of fashion, I may not have the right biases to judge this correctly.
Or, maybe I'm just refusing to be sexist.
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)bless your heart......
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)Whatever....
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)so calling them a "slut", "tart", "streetwalker" or "circus clown" based on their makeup and wardrobe is okay. As much people find it offensive that Limpballs would call someone a slut based on a political disagreement, it seems to happen from DUers often enough too.
The difference is, when Dems say it about repukes, it's TRUE, so it's okay... yeah, we'll go with that until we can come up with some better justification for it.
onenote
(42,714 posts)I don't give a rat's ass how much or little makeup the women (or men) on any news program wear. I care about whether they report the news fairly and accurately. You could dress the Fox newscasters in burlap bags and I would still have no respect for them.
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)that's the first word that pops in my head.
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)with what look like 4" heels.
Where does that fit into your lexicon of "streetwalker", "overmade tart", "circus clown", and "slut"?
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)that's all I get from reading your posts.
PavePusher
(15,374 posts)DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)I am in NY and am watching her show for the first time (I live in CA and I'm usually sleeping at this time of day).
She looks as if she has been made up using a paint roller.
Maybe it's the teevee in my hotel.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)Shepard Smith seems to lay it on pretty thick.
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)When they turn their head you can see the makeup line at their chin.. It makes me laugh, thinking about these gun loving, "tough" patriotic, Murikans, sitting in the makeup chair discussing which shade of blush they should use today...
Botany
(70,516 posts).... newspaper in England.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Really?
Could some men chime in here? I find neither particularly attractive.
EOTE
(13,409 posts)"Heinous" is the first word that comes to mind when I see them. I've made earnest attempts to judge their aesthetic appeal (because I, like you, have heard so many comments regarding their attractiveness) trying to not factor in what wretched people they are, but looking at them as objectively as possible, I couldn't imagine being attracted to either one.
DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)Mike Daniels
(5,842 posts)Now they're looking pretty much like Dorian Gray's portrait at the end of that tale.
gkhouston
(21,642 posts)She had a decent makeup job (lots of neutrals, including the lipstick) and actually did look nice.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)If you look at her from a couple years ago, and then more recently, she definitely has had some fillers done.
gkhouston
(21,642 posts)had opted for something less garish that what we usually see.
PA Democrat
(13,225 posts)and never pass up an opportunity to show off their legs.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Interesting mindset, there.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)RandiFan1290
(6,237 posts)You got mad cause they made fun of Fox and you tried to cause trouble. Poor lil fella.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)on a progressive message board.
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)So any woman that wears a little too much make up and a short skirt is a "porn star"?
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,269 posts)FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,736 posts)CatWoman
(79,302 posts)and remember, the author of the article is a woman.
Baitball Blogger
(46,736 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)And the list of strikingly unattractive male guests is actually pretty equivalent to the list of male guests. I don't watch Fox but I see clips of them on MSNBC and... well, I'll just come out and say that Charles Krauthammer is terrifying. And he's not the only one. Why are all the women on Fox gorgeous (or blonde, the conservative equivalent) and not (as far as I have ever seen) a single man is?
I hope it's clear that I'm not gratuitously making fun of anybody's appearance, or judging them, or anything like that, because good looks are merely good luck. I'm wondering why Fox seems to have made a deliberate decision that women's looks are extremely important and men's looks matter not at all.
Edited to add that I guess I did gratuitously make fun of, and kind of judge, Charles Krauthammer. That wasn't nice of me.
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)Care Acutely
(1,370 posts)........[font size = 7] ! [/font] You nailed it!
renate
(13,776 posts)I'd always thought that he looked like Sam the Eagle, but this guy is his doppelganger.
Nay
(12,051 posts)"young female eye candy" is a social construct that rich and not-so-rich men enjoy. Thus it appears on Fox.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Maybe show up dressed like Fabio on a cover shoot, give the blue-haired Republican women a little thrill next time.
Or maybe a pirate outfit!
That would be AWESOME!!!
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)p.s. that's my daughter
renate
(13,776 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,501 posts)seeing this photo of Ailes without makeup (on the right).
ismnotwasm
(41,989 posts)Got that right
kimbutgar
(21,162 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,303 posts)that judges people by their appearance. I'm not surprised at this at all.
ieoeja
(9,748 posts)Its that little scowling look they give you when theyre delivering the news, she continued. Its like the bitchy girl in high school, [but] now shes your friend, and you hate the same people.
dogknob
(2,431 posts)BainsBane
(53,035 posts)Last edited Thu Dec 13, 2012, 03:38 AM - Edit history (1)
to Karl Rove on election night. I liked when she said that. I don't watch Fox enough to know if she's remotely bearable otherwise. I get my Fox from the Daily Show.
dogknob
(2,431 posts)Sometimes I get the feeling that Megyn is aware she's working a gig aboard the Titanic. It might pay well, but it's still the Titanic; be aware of the location of all lifeboats.
bongbong
(5,436 posts)First to go to court to argue that they could tell known lies and call them "news".
First to have one of their "serious" woman journalists strip for a men's magazine.
What a quality channel it is!
lightcameron
(224 posts)Warren Religion
(70 posts)Males and females both.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Fox isn't out to inform or educate people in any straightforward way. It's out to stimulate the reptilian brain and emotional centers in its conservative audience.
Sensationalism and sex sell -- and that includes spreading fear and bigotry.
GiaGiovanni
(1,247 posts)It's about circumventing the cerebral cortex and getting right to the reptilian brain.
rufus dog
(8,419 posts)A girl from Jr. High with too much lip gloss.
moondust
(19,993 posts)That's Republicanism. Cosmetics and lies.
(I think the deeper cultural connection is that many Republican/conservative women have historically had the money to frequent beauty parlors and buy lots of cosmetics, and that's what many Republican/conservative men developed a taste for.)
closeupready
(29,503 posts)????
Not seeing it. I see hair coloring, bleached teeth, heavy foundation/makeup.
Care Acutely
(1,370 posts)I probably know less about the woman than I should, mostly because I do not believe for a second that the cavemen of the right will ever allow her to get too far, even if she says all the right things. She still can't be a good ol' fashund real 'Murican white girl, and even Mc Sarah had to be appointed to notoriety by a desperate old man. They hate women, but that's not the point I make here. Nikki Haley appears to me to be a nice looking woman. She's not 19, but she seems to look nice when I see her.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)over time, express itself on the outside, as well. I find many of these Republican 'beauties' to be physically ugly with lots of paint to hide the ugliness - bottle blondes, heavy foundation, mascara, hair color, high heels, boob jobs, botox, etc.
Hillary Clinton, in contrast, kind of sets a different tone - physically not graced with much natural beauty, but has an inner radiance and nurturing that I think is attractive; icing on the cake is recent statements she's made that she feels she's old enough now that she doesn't have to wear make-up anymore if she doesn't feel like it. Gotta respect a woman who demands to be respected for exactly who she is.
Care Acutely
(1,370 posts)I also agree with the idea put forth that all of that paint and what-not often serves to assure some men that the female wants to please them - an absolute requirement of the right.
Just saying that if I saw NH in a crowd, I would probably think that she looks nice, and I would have little reason to think much more about it unless she started talking.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Cheers!
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)who need to feel good about themselves.
treestar
(82,383 posts)How many times have they told us that? Maybe that's why their ratings are going down. We don't want old men when we're young. In the primitive wild (to which the right wing is forever referring) of course we would want the strongest men. Tarzan wasn't portrayed as old. Trophy wives are not "natural."