When We Call a Woman’s Style ‘Untidy,’ ‘Frumpy’ and ‘Shapeless’
Minnesota’s First Lady Gwen Walz is middle-aged, and looks it
It’s 2024 and yet here we are again, talking about middle-aged women with perhaps a few pounds to spare, not the sharpest dressers in the world and not slaves to cosmetic surgery as being “refreshing” while also describing them in words that clearly indicate anything but.
That’s what The Cut’s Valerie Monroe did in an article about Democratic vice president nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s wife, Gwen.
“I was struck by how unmanipulated she looked, like a high-school teacher who’d just dismissed her last rowdy class of the day: the untidy hair, frumpy cardigan, shapeless above-the-knee shift, and comfortable, open-toe shoes.”
Was the 58-year-old Walz’s “look” intentional, she wondered, or did she not have enough time to prepare or some mix of both? And then answers her question:
“It seems impossible that someone in Walz’s position couldn’t say, ‘Get me a blowout, stat!’ and not be instantly appeased. But that kind of attention to appearance would have to be top of mind — which it seems it is not. …Before you shut me down for criticizing her, let me say that I find a kind of ‘situational’ beauty to her style that I admire, because it…
