Palin's frames

The recent spate of press coverage and blog twitters about Sarah Palin's 704 series Kazuo Kawasaki designed titanium frames brings to mind an old saying, "The clothes make the man." So, does it also follow that that "The eyewear makes the woman?" Or we could expand our theory somewhat and ask if "The eyewear makes the woman qualified?"

As Palin and her supports labor to shore up the vice-presidential candidate's credentials for the job against what some say is significant evidence to the contrary, it is curious that so much attention is given to her choice of eyewear. It is hardly surprising for the press to analyze the sartorial selections of female politicians--we are just now recovering from the intense scrutiny of Hillary Clinton's pantsuits, and who could forget Condaleezza's "boot-gate"?--yet glasses, a small though arguably functional accessory, seem insignificant by comparison. However, their relative contribution to a larger "ensemble" belies the unique and transformative power of glasses on women. They have a semiotic charge that can simultaneously de-sex (remember Dorothy Parker's famous couplet, "Men don't make passes/at girls who wear glasses") and empower. If you buy into the vernacular of popular culture, then you will easily recognize that dowdy, intelligent woman wearing glasses in the classic Hollywood film, who will (before the credits roll) let her hair down, take off her glasses and transform into a sexy vixen who finds satisfaction and fulfillment in love (read: sex). If we follow that line of logic backwards, we can return the starlet to her un-sexy, intellectually respectable identity, by sweeping her hair back up and putting on the glasses.

So perhaps the 704 series Kawasaki frames are Palin's way of dethroning her old beauty queen persona and of adding a layer of studious authority to all those close-ups. Or maybe she just doesn't like contacts. Either way, like Clinton's pantsuits they are signifiers and not qualifiers, and we would much rather know about Palin's plans for bringing health care to the uninsured than how many pairs of glasses she owns.