This is for all of us who don’t have perfect hair — and for those of us with no hair left to style, fluff, slick or comb.
It’s for those of us who haven’t had our teeth straightened, capped and whitened. Or our bodies surgically enhanced. Our eyebrows shaped, our muscles toned by a private coach, our clothes selected by a private shopper or our shoes polished by a private valet.
Our noses fixed and every blemish removed by an expensive dermatologist.
Maybe we can’t afford to dress like a million bucks, and maybe we use coat hooks for our sweatshirts rather than coat hangers for silk jackets.
It doesn’t make us dumber than well-dressed, well-groomed and well-toned rich people. It shouldn’t make us less attractive to employers, less productive to society or less noteworthy — except it does in the eyes of President Donald Trump.
Setting aside the president’s opinions and actions against Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Gaza and Minnesota; taking a break from his views on interest rates, health care, the Army-Navy football game and everything else he spouts and pouts about; we should put on a chili-stained T-shirt and think about his fixation on a person’s appearance as an appropriate way to judge their character and qualifications for work.
Trump will soon name a new chair of the Federal Reserve, the nation’s key interest-rate-setting nonpartisan, nonpolitical, impartial, independent body. Or least it’s supposed to be all those things to help keep the U.S. economy moving along without high inflation or high unemployment.
What possible nominees know, how they think and how well they understand economics are all that should matter. But not in Trump’s mind, which is the only mind that matters.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the president interviewed a former Federal Reserve official for the job last month — Kevin Warsh — and was struck by his acumen, and, yes, his good looks.
All of us who are not handsome or good looking should be offended. I certainly fall into that category with my big nose, misshapen teeth, squinty eyes and a sparse head of hair. None of which should disqualify me from a job, but Trump sets the standards. Thankfully, he hasn’t issued an executive order setting the standards — at least not yet.
Our beauty-fixated president often comments on a person’s appearance, as if it were the deciding factor in their role in life, or at least their role in his administration.
He called South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem “beautiful,” then later appointed her to lead the Department of Homeland Security. He also said Pam Bondi, his attorney general, is beautiful.
His 28-year-old Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has a “beautiful face” and “lips that don’t stop,” according to the president.
He publicly called a newspaper reporter “ugly.” He called another “piggy.”
He likes what he likes to see and doesn’t see a problem in announcing his opinions about people’s appearance. Trump even jokes about it, such as at a Cabinet meeting last year: “I look at Pam (Bondi). I would never say she’s beautiful, because that’s gonna be the end of my political career.”
Regardless of when his political career may end, he could at least call an end to judging people by their appearance. It’s insulting and demeaning. It’s hurtful to everyone who can’t measure up.
A change would be a beautiful thing.
Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.
