Public Persona

Beautycon Media CEO Moj Mahdara on what you can learn about beauty from a political strategist.

- Colin Leaman

Early this year we saw a guy with uneven orange skin and what looks like a toupee, who seemingly says whatever he wants whenever he wants, ascend to the White House. Imagine any qualified woman making it even half as far looking so outrageous. For powerful women—especially women in politics—there’s a societal imperative to have to think about our appearance and shape it so that people will actually listen to our words.

“For many lifetimes ahead of us, we’re going to be judged more harshly,” says Jess McIntosh, a Brooklyn-based political strategist. “Until we have way more parity in Congress or in the corporate world, women are always going to have to be more strategic than men about the way we choose to present ourselves.”