Just like the rest of womankind, your humble aggregator has resented, struggled against, and ultimately capitulated to fascist beauty standards demanded by the Axis of Evil comprised of television, women's magazines, and the human resources department. (Cardigans over hoodies? As you wish, corporate overlords.) So we couldn't hold it against Michele Bachmann for spending thousands of dollars on makeup and hair in the weeks after she announced she's running for president. Nevertheless, it seemed a bit odd when it was revealed that reporters covering Bachmann's campaign were forbidden from revealing that the candidate, from time to time, committed the unspeakable offense of wearing cargo pants.

Earlier this month, The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza reported that as the Bachmann 2012 campaign plane took off for Iowa some weeks back, Bachmann's spokeswoman warned the reporters aboard, "I know everything is on the record these days, but please just don't broadcast images of [Bachmann] in her casual clothes." And the journalists honored the edict, Lizza reports:

It was a good day for Bachmann: a new poll showed her sharing the top position in Iowa with Mitt Romney. After we landed in Des Moines, an aide handed Bachmann a copy of that morning's Des Moines Register. She swung around to face the press, displaying the front-page headline: "ROMNEY, BACHMANN LEAD REPUBLICAN PACK." It was a perfect shot. The members of the press looked at her cargo pants and then at one another. Nobody took a picture.

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Elspeth Reeve