A good-looking column

Joyce Purnick, in her Metro Matters column in The New York Times, found a subtle way of protesting those ubiquitous physical descriptions of women in the public eye that tend to appear in print (latest case in point, "Bad Hair Day Hall of Fame," a series of photos of Hillary Clinton in the April Capital

Style). Purnick's March 13 column, an account of the Inner Circle, an annual political lampoon attended by influential types, described the attire and hair-do's of only the men. New York Post columnist Steve Dunleavy was spotted "smoothing his salt-and-pepper pompadour" while interim New York City schools chancellor Harold O. Levy was "wearing a tuxedo, a vest of kimono silk, and a fish-shaped tie." Neither of the two women mentioned in the column - Hillary Clinton and New York governor George Pataki's aide, Zenia Mucha, got the physical onceover.

Reporters "never talk about the appearance of the men," explains Purnick. "Basically, the column meant `cut it out with the women unless you want us to do it to the men: " She may have been a bit too subtle, however. "Most people somehow missed it," Purnick says.

- Aparna Surendran

Surendran is an intern for CJR.