It’s ok to be gay on TV, just not yourself…the feminizing of Rachel Maddow

First out lesbian to host a prime-time news show, Rachel Maddow, maybe a liberal media darling, but rumor has it the the folks at MSNBC aren’t letting her get away with any lezzie looks.

A feminizing makeover may be in Maddow’s future as Page 6 reports that execs will do everything in their power to make a lady out of her, even if it means “putting her in a skirt.”

While I certainly think there are ladies out there that could use some help in the fashion department, Maddow doesn’t look slovenly, just pleasantly butch. Such a makeover move seems to speak much more to how out-of-touch media moguls want to impose their own tasteless sense of fashion on a community they don’t understand.

Maddow’s current look may or may not appeal to a straight male demographic, but she is by no means lacking in camera-friendliness. We need more representations of people that do not conform to traditional gender expressions on TV. And her black framed glasses that MSNBC dubs Drew Carey, but I see as more Harry Potter, will most likely add to her charm as a charismatic and adorable butch. You can’t take that away!

But in all this beauty debate it’s easy to lose sight of what promises to be a complicated and interesting news show, wherein Maddow is forthright about her liberal outlook, but refuses to pander to high profile Democrats. Maddow is not afraid to say exactly what she thinks be it to appeal to heterosexual America: “I can’t be less gay,” to making sure the television industry does not dull her message: “It is very easy to get homogenized by the TV machine and come out like sausage.”

Based on how she’s handled herself so far, I can’t see that happening.