Kamala Harris and the politics of appearance

By now you may have read about the debate over the racial identity of Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party candidate for US president. As I had hoped, when the question about her race came up in a CNN interview recently, she brushed it off as something not worth engaging with. “Next question, please,” she told journalist Dana Bash when the latter questioned her about her opponent Donald Trump’s accusation that she only “turned black” to run for president. 

Unfortunately for Harris, as a woman — and a black woman at that — something she may not be able to brush off as easily is how she presents in public. Even though she has a style that “works for her”, as per one writer for Harper’s Bazaar, she will be scrutinised for her style choices. Few women in public life can’t escape this.

New York Times fashion editor Vanessa Friedman writes that Harris “has stepped into the spotlight … with a high-wattage smile, a pop culture boost and a cascade of endorsements. Suddenly everything about her seems to have been electrified, except one thing — her clothes.”

She adds: “Ms Harris has appeared (at campaign events) in the neutral pantsuits she adopted as her vice-presidential uniform, in shades of black, dark blue, burgundy and beige, with the occasional jolt of salmon pink or baby blue … For the past four years, that was the perfect camouflage of the country’s No 2 executive: sombre, deferential, kind of dull. But does it look presidential?”

Embodied authority

Friedman continues to elaborate on how Harris’ somewhat boring fashion choices may be part of a carefully planned strategy, because as life would have it, female political candidates are scrutinised on appearance far more than male candidates are. As I’ve pointed out in a column here before: clothing is often used to demean women in public life in the way former DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko was a few years ago when some parliamentarians took exception to her wearing a dress the hem of which was just above the knee. Limiting the scope for that by choosing pantsuits and the like is perhaps a strategy for Harris to circumvent the potential of such vitriol. 

Writing for Elle Magazine, Laura Antonia Jordan says: “For women in politics, the simple act of ‘getting dressed’ can become a minefield. Harris, however, has mastered the craft … You can tell she’s comfortable in what she’s been wearing because she looks tall … Harris is 5’4”, but carries herself with an authority that makes her seem much taller than that.”

While it’s true that women in power receive such great scrutiny for their appearance, it’s also true that it’s not exactly compatible with the Western world’s stated equality ideals. For black people, and women specifically, the issue of appearance is one that has always been fraught with politics. Even children are not immune. 

Recent SA history is littered with many examples of how black children have been subjected to lopsided scrutiny regarding how they wear their hair, for example. A widely circulated image of female children at Dlangezwa High School in KwaZulu-Natal recently sparked such debate on social media, precisely because the unabated policing of black women’s appearances is something we’ve become accustomed to as a society. 

Hair politics

The image showed students at the all-girls boarding school sitting at what looks like an assembly hall, all of them with a bald head. Many defended what was reported to be the school’s hair policy, while some argued that it was another example of outdated, draconian, even “colonial” rules rooted in antiblackness. 

You might recall that a similar row erupted at Pretoria Girls High in 2016, where students were forced to straighten their hair, allegedly because the school hair policy viewed natural African hair as “untidy”. In the US, a similar debate has been raging, culminating in the 2019 California state’s CROWN Act. Per thecrownact.com: The CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is a law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, which is the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locs, twists or bantu knots.

In SA, the Human Rights Commission ruled last year that “appearance policies infringe on pupils’ dignity”. 

Kamala Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket in the US election may be a symbolic step in the right direction in terms of the status of women, and particularly black women in society. In the absence of laws and similar initiatives, appearance remains a thorny issue in societies such as ours in which the dignity of black people is often tied to how they look.