Surprised

I'm surprised
that he apologized.

I'm surprised the Prez had to do so. I admit that I thought his original comment was sort of cringe-inducing socially. But I thought he was in a position to make it acceptable. He's a powerful man, a man regarded as good looking and sexy. A man who delivers lines like that, usually, with a sly little smile that, to me, seems to say, "Yes, I know I'm stepping over a line here, but watch how gracefully I do it."

But, I guess it didn't come off right somehow.

I'm a little amused by people trying to develop theoretical rules for things like this. This incident, to me, falls deeply into the "current manners" category. I won't be at all surprised if the unwritten rules are drastically different in 20 years - in either a more severe or more lax direction.

For instance, from The Atlantic:

...I've long felt we lack a solid theoretical underpinning for easily discussing these issues, and why precisely it is that admiring and complimenting women for the beauty they work so hard to maintain--and let's be clear, nobody looks like Harris at her age (48) without effort...

She then proposes a theoretical underpinning that seems underpinned.

And that thing about "she's so old she must be working hard to look good"... that's probably true, but somehow sounds like a subtle form of needling to me.

Of course "we" can't all "easily discuss" these issues. There is a lot of pain wrapped up, for a lot of people, in judgments of who is prettier than whom, in judging who is still pretty even though she is 48.

I'm reminded of that old Janis Ian son, At Seventeen.

For some, discussing these issues
requires a box of tissues.