"When Republicans Get Stylists...": Let Us Make America Fabulous Again and (Flag-) Pin Down The Aesthetic!

From: US Politics, May 2024: They Shoot Puppies, Don't They?

Inspired by this tweet:

.@GovKristiNoem what happened? pic.twitter.com/YFSD3Jjq75

— Dr. Oddman 😷 aka Dark Brandon (@oddemann) May 5, 2024

what's funny is she went from styling herself like Iowa's governor to looking like a generic fox news pundit
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/03/01/ap_22012039041225_wide-e230a476e1898e277c0b3241d06992baae3ece5d.jpg?s=1600&c=85&f=webp

Governor-now-Senator Perry from Yellowstone seems like a key, er, touchstone as well

https://www.jacket-hub.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Yellowstone-S04-Wendy-Moniz-Coat.webp

She's a Democrat(?) though...

...generic fox news pundit

Dress for the job you want (now that Vice President is off the table)?

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/31/06/83077459-13256581-image-a-10_1711861901361.jpg

She had every mirrorball in Hoboken dining halls removed and re-stitched for that dress.

Yowza

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/ngF5UGUfbflcY5v7iE2L3aGmx_E=/0x474:4613x3069/960x540/media/img/mt/2023/03/GettyImages_1471785258-1/original.jpg

https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/macenancy_042023gn01_w.jpg?strip=1

feels line Nancy Mace belongs in this thread

wasn't there some rumor going around that there's a plastic surgeon (maybe in Florida?) that all the republican women go to and that's part of why they seem to be merging into one face?

I think he grossly overestimates how much of the Republican base would actually care if he spent some time in the clink, I bet a lot of them would go "fine, good, whatever" (and then vote for him anyway)

i remember the RNC caught heat for giving Sarah Palin a bunch of money for clothes and makeup, simpler time's iirc

BIG HAIR
DON’T CARE

https://static.politico.com/22/b6/e9c6d61c496286ff8959785efab1/congress-beavers-lauren-boebert-override.jpg

she look so sad

In Your Face: The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA

Noem’s anti-immigrant politics might have been familiar to South Dakotans. But did they recognize their former governor? Noem is one of several figures—a few men, but mostly women—in President Donald Trump’s orbit to undergo striking physical transformations as the boundaries that once delineated celebrity and political power fully disintegrate. The resulting look has since sparked satirical backlash online, with critics mocking “conservative girl makeup.”

But the most jarring aesthetic in this burgeoning MAGA stagecraft is the unbridled embrace of face-altering procedures: plastic surgery, veneers, and injectables like Botox and fillers. (As one Daily Mail headline declared, “Plastic surgery was [the] star of [the] show” at the Republican National Convention in 2024.) The overall look has since been disparagingly referred to as “Mar-a-Lago face.”

https://www.ft.com/content/23d5ea40-16aa-4067-8df3-b14376dd7d58

Be a MAGA trophy wife...or just look like one!

But this aesthetic does derive from the classic Fox News Vixen template, which I assume is rooted in the "weather girl" cheesecake tradition.

It's a conspicuously expensive and leisured look straight out of the Veblen playbook.

https://www.advocate.com/media-library/karoline-leavitt.jpg?id=56061789&width=1200&height=600&coordinates=0%2C39%2C0%2C39

Having a "C" name inexplicably spelled with a "K" also seems to fit the vibe

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-misogyny-kristi-noem-manhood-crisis

You may have noticed the “Trump look” that many women around the president have adopted, whether it’s visitors to Mar-a-Lago or members of his cabinet. It features plumped lips, garish makeup, and wavy hair; Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s remarkable physical transformation is the prototypical case. It creates a distinct aesthetic for the Trump movement, one in which even women in high-ranking positions have endeavored to make themselves look as doll-like as possible, lest anyone mistake them for professionals elevated by virtue of their experience and skills.
As sociologist and New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom pointed out recently, you may marvel at how artificial the women around Trump look, but that’s precisely the point. The fact that the plastic surgery is obvious and the effect is unnatural is exactly what Trump values, because it demonstrates that the woman was willing to put in effort to reach for a particular aesthetic standard.

Trump judges “which women are attractive based on their visible effort of beauty,” McMillan Cottom says, and the more obvious the alteration in a woman’s appearance — even to the point of being grotesque — the more she has shown her commitment to serve him. No one needs to tell Kristi Noem to get back in her place, because she’s already there.

I adore TMcMC. Come to think of it none of her content has been in my FYP for a long time, I may need to re-follow.