WTF with Joan Juliet Buck: The Real Babes of Politics

Colorado Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert (left). New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (right). Words by Joan Juliet Buck If I show you a woman in sneakers with lines on her face carrying a tote bag from NPR, The New Yorker, or indeed any organization that promotes rational discourse, you would know immediately who she voted for. But if I show you a woman in a tight evening dress with graffiti letters spelling out a provocative political slogan on her backside, you would guess wrong. Lauren Boebert, the gun-rights Colorado Republican congresswoman, wore a red cocktail dress with Let’s Go Brandon in white fake handwriting across her ass on election night. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the activist New York Democratic congresswoman, wore a white dress with Tax the Rich in red fake handwriting across her ass to the Met Ball in 2021. Visual clues have become gibberish. In 2025, we have gone so far beyond the old red-blue political color codes that the medium is any message you want it to be. Every woman in power wants to prove she’s a babe, and every part of every woman’s body is on the table. It’s a gigantic mess of taut calves, huge boobs, deep cleavage, exposed underwear, arched booty on spike heels, with whispery shadows of nipples playing hide-and-seek along the upper rims of bodices, teddies, and corsets. This is the age of tits, ass, and plastic face. It used to be a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in a position of power did not expose her nipples to strangers. Her job was to lead and control the hordes, not titillate or breastfeed them. She was a boss, not a stripper or a mother. Power was business. Leadership needed full concentration and was best exercised by women in a state of asexuality. Like Joan of Arc, the virgin warrior in full armor inspired by angels to chase the British out of France in 1429, or Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen bound in thick brocades and ringed by giant ruffs, inspired by necessity to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588. The clothes of women leaders were dignified and thick enough to conceal both primary and secondary sexual characteristics, though women generally came to power at an age when primary was out of the question and secondary was no longer very attractive. “It was none of your business what was inside; she was in charge. Big black rectangles on short handles, the bags were so menacing that they gave rise to the verb ‘to handbag’.” British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 1979. But in that old world, achievement counted more than appearance. Classic female politicians were doughty battle-axes in suits built to strike respect in the heart of voters and fear in the hearts of foes. Margaret Thatcher, who through the 1980s was the prime minister of Great Britain (the only country with the word ‘Great’ in its name), wore her blonde hair in a lacquered sphere as hard as her suits, which were almost as hard as her handbags. It was none of your business what was inside; she was in charge. Big black rectangles on short handles, the bags were so menacing that they gave rise to the verb “to handbag,” meaning to treat others with ruthless insensitivity. The bag was Margaret Thatcher’s object of power, her scepter, and, fittingly for a woman ruler, a hollow object, rather than a long hard one. The bags had no brand, no logo, no pet name borrowed from a celebrity, but were rumored to have given some members of her Cabinet fantasies of being beaten into submission by a bag, or by the prime minister. Thatcher was out of office by 1990, and soon her trademark symbols made way for a new self-presentation. Visual declarations of strength dissipated. The power suit took 10 years to lose its shoulder pads; without them, it could no longer disguise a bosom. Bodycon dresses that showed off all curves were a hit with voters: the tighter, the better. The unbreakable helmets of lacquered hair now became soft, thick tresses, as long as the wavy curls of a captive mermaid. Handbags became too famous for public service. When the CEO of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, owner of Dior, Vuitton, Fendi and many more, realized what Chanel had always known—that women of any size or shape will lose their minds to get an authentic double C on their bags—he put logos on everything and launched an It Bag frenzy that made him the second richest man on the planet. But as handbags became the hot accessory, they lost their charge. The transformation from discreet scepter of a doughty female leader into world-famous commercial trophy beloved by the wealthy and the greedy stripped handbags of their dark power. They were reduced to being just things. Very nice things, but things. By 2025, handbags are so weighed down with messages—they trumpet the brand identity, announce the wearer’s personal status and financial health, confirm or refute the wearer’s relevance through her awareness of trends—that no woman politician wants to risk carrying a bag. “The Hermès Birkin says too rich, the Telfar vegan-leather ‘Brooklyn Birkin’ says too left.” Telfar The brand identities of bags have grown strong enough to define the personality of whoever is carrying one. The Hermès Birkin says too rich, the Telfar vegan-leather “Brooklyn Birkin” says too left. It’s safer to carry only a cell phone. Pivotal advances in the first years of this century opened up a new world of self-showmanship that would fill the chambers of power with hot babes. In 2007 came the Red Camera, the first high-resolution professional digital film and television camera; its advanced technology magnified every imperfection , to the dismay of all actors. Before the Red Camera, Dior had created an effective onscreen makeup named Visiora, but the Red Camera saw through its tricks. The pitiless Red lens caused a stampede towards cosmetic remedies: the knife, the hypodermic, the hyaluronic acid, the calcium hydroxylapatite, the Poly-L-Lactic acid, the Botox, the Botox, the Botox. Also in 2007, Apple launched the iPhone; it had a good lens, so now, beyond taking pictures of sunsets, dinner, babies, and cats, each person could be the star of their own life. As the Red Camera brought the enamel face to Hollywood, the iPhone brought the enamel face to everyday life. Selfies! Pouty-face selfies, lonely selfies, happy selfies, outfit selfies shot in the bathroom mirror with the toilet in the background. The iPhone lens is as cruel as the Red Camera, so storefront medical-cosmetic clinics soon sprang up in the place of nail salons. The selfies were posted on the newly popular Facebook, which by 2008 had 100 million users. When Instagram launched in 2010, the selfies migrated to its grid layout and flattering filters, leaving cats and sunsets to Facebook. By 2018, the most downloaded app in America was TikTok, but Instagram had reached one billion users—one-seventh of the population of the entire world. That’s a scale beyond scale. Popularity now comes in magnitudes the size of several countries at once. The United States population is 334.9 million, but Selena Gomez, singer, actress, and a billionaire at 32, has 421 million Instagram followers. “Their look [‘The Real Housewifes of …’] set the template for how to attract fame and followers in multiple millions. It is the look of the century. Many women politicians adopted this look.“ From left: Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, season 11; Tiffany Trump. And Bethenny Frankel, once a Housewife, now an entrepreneur, has 3.7 million followers. She was an original member of the cultural shift show that made women present as babes. The Real Housewives franchise, which has now spread to 28 countries, premiered on Bravo a year before the iPhone and the Red Camera, but adapted to the pitiless lens that came with the opportunity for immense popularity. The Real Housewives of… were neither really real nor really housewives, but The Real Housewives of Orange County, of New York City, of Atlanta, of New Jersey, of D.C., of Beverly Hills, of Miami, of Potomac, of Dallas, of Salt Lake City, and even, briefly, of Dubai, fed us visions of frozen-faced overdressed women with a taste for angry confrontations that the producers called lighthearted banter. The Housewives displayed plumped lips, furry eyelashes, and hurt feelings that fueled the scoldings that escalated into catfights, but in each city, they were so beautifully camera-ready that their popularity kept growing. It was the perfected faces, the tight dresses over the perfected bosoms, the long hair with longer extensions, the spike heels, the aura of being beyond any middle-class accountability that gathered the audience that then gathered the followers who then gathered the fame that allowed each real Housewife to make a fortune by marketing something or other, and often divorce the lug who’d made her a Housewife in the first place. Their look set the template for how to attract fame and followers in multiple millions.  It is the look of the century. Many women politicians adopted this look once they’d learned their pantsuits would never arouse enough enthusiasm in the electorate to hand them power. The new Cabinet is full of women done up in the style of The Real Housewives. Kristi Noem, new head of Homeland Security, has flowing dark locks. The new director of Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has flowing black hair with a shock of white in it. “Instead of Bethenny Frankel’s ‘Handbag University’ posts to educate her followers about luxury, Tulsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem pose with guns.” Tulsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem. They both post on Instagram, but instead of, say, Bethenny Frankel’s “Handbag University” posts to educate her followers about luxury, Tulsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem pose with guns. Gabbard, a former National Guard member, favors videos of herself in full sweaty military training mode or posed with automatic weapons tagged SigSauer. Kristi Noem, the former governor of South Dakota who once had to shoot her dog, uses rifles for pheasant. The attorney general, Pam Bondi from Florida, has long blonde hair and strikes me as the babest babe of them all. The blonde, you know? WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 12: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi walks to the West Wing after doing an interview on FOX News on the North Lawn of the White House on February 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. In the interview, Bondi said that the Justice Department is prepared to help carry out and defend U.S. President Donald Trump’s agenda after federal judges have temporarily blocked some of Trump’s executive orders. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) If I show a Democrat a blonde babe from Florida, they will see bad news. But here’s the surprise: Pam Bondi was the Florida Attorney General at the time of the Parkland school shooting. She then had the courage to piss off the National Rifle Association and back laws to restrict access to guns. Maybe you can see hope in a blonde babe. Visual clues are unreadable in this brand-new mystery. 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