Amal Clooney is Sick of Being Asked Fashion Questions
LatestOn Friday, Amal Clooney was busy at her day job — you know, the one where she prosecutes war criminals. A reporter thought this was the perfect occasion to ask Clooney about her courtroom fashion choices. The reporter joked that everyone expected her to wear Versace to the courtroom.
“I’m wearing Ede & Ravenscroft,” Clooney retorted, referring to the company who has been making the formal legal wear worn by judges and lawyers in Europe for centuries.
Clooney was at the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the appeal of a Turkish politician who had denied that Turkey carried out a genocide against the Armenian people. But, of course, Turkey did commit genocide against the Armenians, historians estimate that, beginning in 1915, some 1.5 million Armenians were murdered.
A quick listen to her argument before the judges makes the case for how absurd it was to ask her — an international human rights attorney — about her fashion preferences.
“There are images of beheadings, burnt bodies, railway cars of Armenians being herded into the desert. There are descriptions of the Euphrates River filled with blood,” she said.
But even as Clooney contends with such weighty issues, the questions keep coming back to the superficial stuff. And that’s not because of her envious place as the wife of one George Clooney.
Women have been questioned on the utterly beside-the-point topic of their appearances even as they, quite literally, change the world.
ThinkProgress has a nice rundown of the stupidity that powerful women like Clooney are subjected to; from Karl Lagerfeld’s helpful critique of Angela Merkel’s wardrobe, to reporters questioning Hilary Clinton about her wardrobe choices.
Sure, they all sound like important women, but why aren’t they wearing Versace?
Image via Getty.