Is the Newsweek cover photo (and story title) of Michele Bachmann sexist?

That’s the charge being laid by conservative bloggers and NOW about this week’s cover photo of Michele Bachmann, which depicts her as she so often appears with wide eyes – or ‘crazy eyes’ as Michelle Malkin labelled them. I obviously don’t think so, having blogged about it here and at Let Freedom Rain. It’s an actual photo – not doctored – that is not unlike so many of Bachmann. Like Pelosi, Bachmann is often seen with a wild, wide-eyed look as shown on the Newsweek cover.

Then there’s CNN’s Dana Loesch who takes great pains to cry ‘sexist’ about the cover but then curiously posts an unflattering picture of Newsweek editor Tina Brown on her blog, laughingly calling for captions.

Even NOW’s Terry O’Neill is in on the ‘sexist’ angle, although her explanation to me is riddled with hypocrisy:

“It’s sexist,” NOW president Terry O’Neill told TheDC. “Casting her in that expression and then adding ‘The Queen of Rage’ I think [it is]. Gloria Steinem has a very simple test: If this were done to a man or would it ever be done to a man – has it ever been done to a man? Surely this has never been done to a man.”

While some have pointed out that Newsweek has used unflattering photos of men such as Rush Limbaugh and John McCain on its cover, O’Neill says that is not the issue.

“Who has ever called a man ‘The King of Rage?’

What do you think? I don’t know of any man called ‘The King of Rage’ but Al Gore, Michael Ignatieff, Rush Limbaugh et al. have had tons of unflattering portraits published and been called names far worse than ‘The King of Rage’. Should unflattering pictures or sexy photos not be published of men as well as women?

My feeling is that NOW diminishes actual sexism with this charge about the Bachmann cover. There are far more insidious examples of sexism and violence in the media against women and men to rail against. Michele Bachmann inspires rage in her subjects and she has a widely-acknowledged wide-eyed look at the world that is a little bit scary. It’s reality not sexism.

Just for grins:

Cross posted at Let Freedom Rain.