I thought media ranking of women leaders by their clothing and hair style choices was past us, but apparently not:

The story is told in the imagery. Back in 2010, when she was first running for Congress, Ms. Noem had a haircut that looked like a cross between “the Rachel,” the layered, straightened haircut Jennifer Aniston made famous on “Friends,” and the power bob favored by Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. When she won re-election in 2012, she had chopped it into a short look that Ms. Sheppard compared to the signature haircut of Kate Gosselin from “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” albeit slightly more corporatized.

After Mr. Trump won the presidency and the MAGA movement took off, Ms. Noem adopted a new look. Her hair got longer and longer, with tousled waves kissed by the curling iron, her part moved to the center. She began to resemble a doppelgänger for Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée. Or a dark-haired version of Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Even Ms. Noem’s clothes changed, from the khaki shirtdress she wore to CPAC in 2011 to the bright blue sheath she chose for her State of the State address this year.

Kristi Noem Gets a MAGA Makeover – The New York Times (archive.org)

The media has returned to judging women by their clothing choices and their hair style. Which seems to be a big step backwards.

• Not just Ocasio-Cortez: the fixation on women politicians’ clothes – Vox
• Sexist media scrutiny of women in politics spans decades, study says | CBC News
• The right—and wrong—way for media to cover female politicians’ wardrobes | Fortune (archive.org)
• Why women politicians are talking about beauty – POLITICO
• Power dressing: why female MPs have faced a century of scrutiny | Women in politics | The Guardian