The XX Factor

Jess , you asked if it’s ever okay to criticize a female public official’s sartorial choices. Check out what North Korean officials recently said about Hillary Clinton : "Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping." This was after calling her a "funny lady" and "vulgar" and "by no means intelligent." She, of course, started it, by saying the North Koreans were behaving like "small children" and "unruly teenagers." It’s possible that she was just playing bad cop to pave the way for her husband to rescue the two arrested American journalists . Still, these twin images of Hillary locked in a nasty spat while her husband gets to play the white knight bring back bad memories.

Photograph of Hillary Clinton by Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images.