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Is it a good idea to have such a cute President?
Was it Megan Non-McArdle who said that women are judged by their looks from day one to the grave? Royal would make a good character on Lost, so I see a few possible political effects:
1. French men will swoon, roll over, and play dead while she passes further protectionist measures.
2. Other women will never trust her.
3. Men, at the meta-level, know that beautiful women trick them all the time, so they will never trust their trust in her.
4. She needs to prove she is tough, and that implies hawkish, nationalistic behavior. She will be especially constrained.
5. She provides a national and global public good, but the Modigliani-Miller theorem holds and each part of her persona is evaluated separately, and accurately.
6. She will be an especially effective diplomat on the world stage.
7. No one cares, or is influenced by looks.
8. If the median voter model were true, the President would be so beautiful every election. Some other model must hold.
We haven't had many beautiful top female leaders, so most of the data is for attractive male leaders; I doubt if the two cases are symmetric. Overall I opt for #8, with a dose of #4 and a bit of #3 and #2.
Wikipedia notes: "For the recent campaign for the Presidential nomination she changed from wearing dull clothing to stylish suits and reportedly had work done on her teeth."
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 11, 2007 at 07:14 AM in Political Science | Permalink
Comments
Margaret Thatcher was highly attractive as a young MP, although in a very English way that Americans don't always appreciate. I've read accounts by Alec Guinness, David Lean, and Kingsley Amis about how they swooned over her looks when she came on the political scene.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Feb 11, 2007 7:37:12 AM
#8 - witness Jean Chretien here in Canada: three terms precisely because he cultivated an image of an unpolished "regular guy".
#4 - keeping with the UK comments, I understand that some changes that Tony Blair made (such as the introduction of postsecondary education tuition fees) were explicitly rejected by the previous (Tory) government as something they could not get past the public.
Posted by: tom s. at Feb 11, 2007 8:03:45 AM
My theory is that people, both men and women, think that good looks is positively correlated with intelligence in men, and negatively correlated with intelligence in women, hence one of the reasons for fewer attractive women politicians.
She does look kinda like the French woman on Lost.
Posted by: Hei Lun Chan at Feb 11, 2007 8:30:02 AM
2. The grim face of female rivalry may be an issue. Women usually become jealous of beautiful women who manage to combine perpetual beauty with a perfect career, perfect children etc. Women may view her more as a slut hobnobbing with all the good old boys than a fellow sister raging against the machine from the inside. Maggie & Merkel can pull it off because they are no-nonsense conservatives, and I don't think that attractiveness was as defining a part of Maggies character than it is now with Royal. Finland's female President looks like Conan O'Brien.
6. Do beautiful women make effective diplomats, does a dose of eyelid batting work on the world stage like it might over a dinner table? An interesting question. We have Condi, of course, who combines beauty with endless globe-trotting. But has she actually accomplished anything? I don't think so. Diplomacy is more akin to poker than a dinner date or party.
Perhaps it is better to look back at Elizabeth 1 or Catherine de Medici, or even Queen Victoria (none of whom were lookers). Strong women do have a tendency to define eras (Elizabethan, Victorian, Thatcherite). But it is precisely their strength and determination we recall, not their looks. So I agree with Tyler that #4 is a likely possibility.
Posted by: adrian at Feb 11, 2007 10:10:47 AM
Despite its reputation as the spiritual home of all leftism France remains quite a macho society, much like Italy. Laurent Fabius, a dogmatic leftist if ever there was one, wondered 'who will take care of her children?' So the manly society work against her, which may make #4 even more likely.
Posted by: adrian at Feb 11, 2007 10:17:13 AM
Dinner With Ségolène
"A pretty neck rippling with pleasure."
BY BERNARD-HENRI LEVY
Sunday, February 11, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009650&mod=RSS_Opinion_Journal&ojrss=frontpage
Posted by: Midas Oracle at Feb 11, 2007 11:15:25 AM
I offer another prediction: her looks offer no insight into how she will govern, but will be used to explain however she governs after the fact.
I'm more confident in the second part of the prediction than in the first, mind you.
Posted by: dWj at Feb 11, 2007 12:08:32 PM
A good chance of some of #4. I think #2 will be a wash, with the women
who don't trust her being offset by the women who are excited about
having a woman leader.
There have been some other beautiful women leaders, with Pakistan's
Benazir Bhutto coming to mind. Actually polls suggest that she is
right now the most popular politician in Pakistan, and if Musharraf
were to allow a fully free election, she would become prime minister,
which would probably be a good thing. She was pretty tough in foreign
affairs, but also a pretty effective diplomat.
I don't know about Catherine de Medici, but Elizabeth I and Victoria
were both good lookers when they were young, as was probably the most
powerful woman leader of them all, Catherine the Great of Russia, and
Cleopatra had a reputation for being beautiful, or at least successfully
seductive, up to a point.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Feb 11, 2007 12:59:27 PM
Fortunately this is not a problem America will face in
the intermediate term. None of the heavy lumber is even
remotely easy on the eyes. There are a couple of minor twigs
that might not cause immediate blindness. Unfortunately the
process of being born again and again has caused irreversible
brain damage.
Posted by: rod stirling at Feb 11, 2007 1:18:01 PM
Cleopatra had a reputation for being beautiful, but it's backed up by absolutely no reliable evidence. The one contemporary portrait of her is on a coin issued by her then-lover Marc Antony, who appears on the opposite side; oddly, she looks just like him, but with long hair. (Not only is this unreliable evidence, but one dearly *hopes* it is -- have you ever seen Roman portraiture?)
I submit that, regardless of one's appearance, it is not hard to be deeply seductive to politicians when one is in charge of the wealthiest province in the known universe, famed for its cultural legitimacy, agriculture, and luxury goods. Antony and Caesar had plenty of reasons to sleep with her besides beauty; no conclusions about her beauty can be drawn from her success as a seductress.
(And it's worth noting that she failed to seduce Augustus -- but he had no need of her help when it came to taking over the empire.)
Posted by: Andromeda at Feb 11, 2007 1:22:34 PM
Wonder how Katherine Harris' looks affected her political career?
http://webpages.charter.net/timandlauren/harris.png
Posted by: shecky at Feb 11, 2007 1:35:48 PM
I think that she, like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, looks like she might have been attactive years ago, but not any more. She certainly wouldn't appeal on looks to the under 40 voters.
It should be pointed out that most male U.S. presidents in recent memory were probably quite handsome when they were young. Reagan had "movie star" good looks in his 30's and was easily one of the best looking 70 year olds around. How much did this really help him though? After all, he was in his 70's.
I think #7 is the answer. People who don't agree with your politics will invariably find you unattractive in all possible ways. For example, Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin would probably rate very low on attractiveness to liberals if they had ever read their writing. Conservatives might find them attractive. But how much does it help to be attractive to people who were already likely to support you? It might help in the primaries - but not in the general election. And it won't help much after the election.
Posted by: Michael H. at Feb 11, 2007 2:47:09 PM
Independent of her looks, it would likely not be good to have her in particular as a president, I'd say. She defined her political agenda by asking people on her website to fill in a poll and then adopted the most popular opinions. Obviously, politicians are supposed to represent the people's opinion but I would never trust anyone with so little integrity and authenticity. Not that she has much of an agenda anyways... I also don't believe France needs more socialist politics. But that's just my opinion.
I second Adrian on 6.
Posted by: am at Feb 11, 2007 2:53:52 PM
#7
Posted by: Chairman Mao at Feb 11, 2007 4:28:15 PM
I think the Joan of Ark mythos might come into play for France. I think Joan of Ark is often thought of as having been pretty in popular culture. Her ability to have lead her troops courageously is somehow linked with the idea that she was this inspirational figure of beauty and passion but also vulnerability and delicateness. It would be a different type of female political figure then a Thatcher or say a Hilary.
Posted by: Casey at Feb 11, 2007 4:58:03 PM
Cute? Are you kidding me?
There's nothing remotely attractive about her.
You'd have to be in the company of Gina Gershon or Diane Lane for looks to be an issue for an over-40 politician.
Posted by: Matt at Feb 11, 2007 9:31:30 PM
To have a president that is "cute" would not matter. I beleive that women are based on their looks for the most part. People do not take as much time to get to know a women if they are not some what pretty. On the other hand people are willing to listen to men no matter what they look like as long as they look presentable. In all to be the president is such an important job that people need to take him seriously. I think that people are not going to be quick to judge the president not matter what they look like becuase people are more conserned with diplomatic issues. They are going to judge the president on how he handles the issues of war, money, welfare, and other important issues that deal with the United States.
Posted by: Jenna Johnson at Feb 11, 2007 11:18:10 PM
Matt is completely correct. This is not an attractive woman.
Posted by: josh at Feb 12, 2007 11:03:55 AM
Men are judged by their looks their whole life as well. I think what she means though is that women are judged by their looks in terms of how much any given man (or woman) would like to have sex with them, whereas men are also judged by their looks pertaining to other criteria - how much power he exudes, how closely he fits in with his group, etc.
cheers!
Posted by: jon o at Feb 12, 2007 11:08:32 AM
BTW, to anybody paying attention, Royale has fallen
behind badly in the polls, even though she was ahead
just a few weeks ago, down 8 points behind Sarkozy in
the latest reports, for better or for worse.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Feb 12, 2007 6:25:00 PM
I wouldn't put much stock in the teeth thing. All Frencmen need work on their teeth.
Posted by: gab at Feb 13, 2007 5:37:29 PM
It is a sad day in Pakistan when Benazir takes over the rigns. I have always liked musharaf but i guesss the best of the lobbyists got to him. He doesnt need benazir and she will without a doubt destroy pakistan like she did last time she was in power.She left the treasury dry last time. In the name of Democracy, she will squeeze any $$ out of the progress pakistan has made under musharaf and for those who call musharaf a dictator; first time in the history of pakistan is their so much freedom that 6-7 channels are hosting anti-musharaf shows on air calling him a control freak, a one man show and a dictator. Pakistanis, come to your senses, do you forget so easily, how they kidnapped andraped openly when she was in power last time, have you forgotten the scandal when her men accidentally kidnapped and raped a generals daughter. It will be a black day if she is not gotten rid off
Posted by: Ghazi Khan at Oct 29, 2007 8:29:46 PM
It is a sad day in Pakistan when Benazir takes over the rigns. I have always liked musharaf but i guesss the best of the lobbyists got to him. He doesnt need benazir and she will without a doubt destroy pakistan like she did last time she was in power.She left the treasury dry last time. In the name of Democracy, she will squeeze any $$ out of the progress pakistan has made under musharaf and for those who call musharaf a dictator; first time in the history of pakistan is their so much freedom that 6-7 channels are hosting anti-musharaf shows on air calling him a control freak, a one man show and a dictator. Pakistanis, come to your senses, do you forget so easily, how they kidnapped andraped openly when she was in power last time, have you forgotten the scandal when her men accidentally kidnapped and raped a generals daughter. It will be a black day if she is not gotten rid off
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