--- title: Joni Ernst Missed the Real Problem with the Taylor Swift Comparison description: Senate candidate Joni Ernst objected to being called attractive, but she missed the real problem with calling female politicians that. canonical: https://time.com/3555239/joni-ernst-missed-the-real-problem-with-the-taylor-swift-comparison/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-03T23:33:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:11:36.371Z article:section: Politics og:title: Joni Ernst Missed the Real Problem with the Taylor Swift Comparison og:description: Senate candidate Joni Ernst objected to being called attractive, but she missed the real problem with calling female politicians that. og:url: https://time.com/3555239/joni-ernst-missed-the-real-problem-with-the-taylor-swift-comparison/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9559dadcc77747f1/69869fbdadae446c9b5448d8/joni-ernst-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Joni Ernst og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joni Ernst Missed the Real Problem with the Taylor Swift Comparison twitter:description: Senate candidate Joni Ernst objected to being called attractive, but she missed the real problem with calling female politicians that. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9559dadcc77747f1/69869fbdadae446c9b5448d8/joni-ernst-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Joni Ernst Missed the Real Problem With the Taylor Swift Comparison > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 3, 2014 11:33 PM UTC  Republican Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst in Des Moines, Iowa on May 29, 2014. Republican Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst in Des Moines, Iowa on May 29, 2014. Charlie Neibergall—AP  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Nov 3, 2014 11:33 PM UTC When video surfaced of a Democratic senator calling her “really attractive,” Senate candidate Joni Ernst took full advantage. In an appearance on Fox News Monday, the Iowa Republican slammed retiring Sen. Tom Harkin, whose seat she’s seeking, for saying in [a video](http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/2014/11/02/iowa-harkin-senate-ernst/18389193/) that she’s “as good looking as Taylor Swift” but “votes like Michele Bachmann.” “I think it’s unfortunate that he and many in their party believe that you can’t be a real woman if you’re conservative and female,” she said. “I believe if my name had been John Ernst on my resume, then Senator Harkin would not have said those things.” Ernst is right that there’s a double standard for female politicians, but she’s not quite right about how it works. For one thing, people say male politicians are sexy all the time. In fact, it’s often an argument in favor of their candidacy. Obama’s sex appeal won him a fan in [“Obama Girl,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU) who made viral YouTube videos about her crush on the then-Presidential candidate in 2008\. Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) [rumored washboard abs](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/rumors-paul-ryans-pac-abs-make-internet-swoon/story?id=17004598) were the subject of much speculation during his 2012 Vice Presidential campaign. Scott Brown, who once posed nude for Cosmopolitan, was the subject of a 2010 New York Times column called [“Bringing Sexy Back.”](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/opinion/27dowd.html) John Edwards was voted People Magazine’s [“Sexiest Politician”](http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20132911,00.html) of 2000. It’s not a recent phenomenon either. Some [historians argue ](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2021078,00.html)that JFK won the presidency in 1960 because he looked more handsome than Nixon during the televised Nixon-Kennedy debate. But while attractiveness is a political asset for male politicians, it’s a liability for women. A 2010 study from [Ben-Gurion University ](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/beauty-discrimination-during-a-job-search/)of the Negev in Israel found that when female job applicants included a photo with their resumes, more attractive women were less likely to get hired than plainer ones. But references to physical appearance of any kind, flattering or insulting, can hurt a female candidate. “When \[a woman\]’s appearance is commented on publicly during a campaign, it undermines her; it actually hurts her,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said during the Real Simple/TIME event on Women and Success on Oct 1\. “And it doesn’t matter if the comment is positive or negative. It undermines her credibility.” That’s why comments about female politicians’ looks are seen as gaffes, while comments on men’s looks are considered funny and flattering. Earlier this year, Gillibrand [revealed in her book](http://time.com/3306993/kirsten-gillibrand-porky-sexism/) that she had been called “porky” and “chubby” by fellow Senators. Last year, Obama [apologized to](http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Obama-ripped-for-Kamala-Harris-remark-4410791.php) California Attorney General Kamala Harris after he commented that she was the “best-looking attorney general in the country.” Before he was defeated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2012, then-Sen. Scott Brown responded to Warren’s comment that she didn’t have to take off her clothes to pay for college (a dig at Brown’s nude photo shoot) with an insulting [“thank God](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65346.html).” And in 2010, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Gillibrand the [“hottest member”](http://www.politico.com/blogs/maggiehaberman/0910/Reid%5Fcalls%5FGillibrand%5Fthe%5Fhottest%5Fmember%5Fat%5Ffundraiser%5F.html) of the Senate, while she was sitting only a few feet away. Each of these comments created a minor scandal, and sparked debate about whether the female politicians were being “taken seriously.” Sarah Palin is a perfect example of this. The former beauty queen-turned politician became a living punchline, thanks in part to her [“sexy librarian hair”](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29FOB-wwln-t.html) and resemblance to SNL comic [Tina Fey.](http://www.hulu.com/watch/34465) So the problem with Harkin’s remarks isn’t that he wouldn’t have made them about a hypothetical John Ernst. The problem is that they would be seen as a problem for the real Joni Ernst. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3555239/joni-ernst-missed-the-real-problem-with-the-taylor-swift-comparison/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3555239/joni-ernst-missed-the-real-problem-with-the-taylor-swift-comparison/"},"headline":"Joni Ernst Missed the Real Problem With the Taylor Swift Comparison","datePublished":"2014-11-03T23:33:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:11:36.371Z","description":"The problem is not that she was called attractive, it's how people react to that","url":"https://time.com/3555239/joni-ernst-missed-the-real-problem-with-the-taylor-swift-comparison/","keywords":["2014 Election","feminism","women","Barack Obama","Taylor Swift","Opinion topic","sexism","Sarah Palin"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9559dadcc77747f1/69869fbdadae446c9b5448d8/joni-ernst-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9559dadcc77747f1/69869fbdadae446c9b5448d8/joni-ernst-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Joni Ernst","caption":"Joni Ernst","creditText":"Charlie Neibergall—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3555239/joni-ernst-missed-the-real-problem-with-the-taylor-swift-comparison/","name":"Joni Ernst Missed the Real Problem With the Taylor Swift Comparison"}}]}] ```