Kimberly Guilfoyle: Being Accomplished Within the Restrains of the Patriarchy

In the not so deep (and sometimes dark) depths of the internet Kimberly Guilfoyle is best known for her hot bod. Coed.com showcases a slide show of the anchor in tight clothes that emphasize her breasts. Her second google result is a YouTube video titled, “Kimberly Guilfoyle Changing on Air and Showing Ass So Hot!! Fox News.”

The video is pretty laughable, it spends almost a minute on slow motion footage of her legs and feet and comes from a channel called “Fox News Hotties.”

Aside from that—controversial though she may be — Guilfoyle is much more than her curves. She used modeling for companies like Victoria’s Secret to pay her way through law school. She’s smarter than the cutesy-girl-act she plays on TV.

Guilfoyle is a prosecutor, an actress, an author, the former First Lady of San Francisco, an author, she’s won awards for her work in the LA and San Francisco districts, and she graduated Cum Laude at the University of California, Davis, before attending two grad schools one in which she published work and research on international children’s rights and European Economic Community law. That only skims the surface of her accomplishments.

On her show  The Five however, Guilfoyle doesn’t present herself as the smart accomplished women she is. During roundtable discussions and debates she’s been known to turn the conversation back to something light, non-dramatic, something categorized as “ditzy,” or “shallow,” when it’s done by a woman. Guilfoyle is far from ditzy, and doesn’t seem shallow when you see her work accomplishments.

Still, she’s made a number of seemingly unintelligent statements, and one must ask if Guilfoyle is dumbing herself down.

Of a discussion on President Obama’s interest on Climate change Guilfoyle said: “He should work for The Weather Channel. He’s like, obsessed with cumulus clouds.”

As a prosecutor, Guilfoyle was primarily focused on crime, and the discussion was veering towards why Obama is putting such focus on climate change as a primary threat to “National Security.” Regardless of her point, the way Guilfoyle presented her argument implied that she doesn’t see climate change as a threat to the planet. The fact is that—regardless of your political affiliation—human activity has increased CO2 emissions that are warming temperatures and melting Ice Caps, which increase ocean water levels. Meaning the country need to focus on renewable energy sources now if it hopes to save our coastal cities, climate change is a threat.

When Donald Trump called Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” Guilfoyle remarked that the statement should really be seen as a compliment because she said she “wanted to be Pocahontas one time.”

Then there was the time she said young women shouldn’t vote.

While discussing the ideas perpetuated by the “War on women” The Five hosts, brought up the difference between married and single, and therefore older and younger, women’s voting patterns. One host pointed out that as people grow older they tend to grow more conservative. Another host stated that women generally care about jobs and economics, but that during the last election cycle there were a couple Republican candidates who made unintelligent comments about rape and that put women’s rights at the forefront of Democratic campaigns. Guilfoyle ranted that this is why young women shouldn’t vote—just like they shouldn’t be allowed on juries—because they don’t know what they’re talking about.

“They’re [young women] like healthy and hot and running around without a care in the world,” she said. “They can go back on Tinder or Match.com.”

These remarks— though Guilfoyle doesn’t seem to think young men should be able to serve on juries or vote either—were found to be harmful by Catherine Taibi at the Huffington Post, not just because they invalidate the experience, thoughts, and opinions of young women, but because they also imply young women’s only interest are and should be being hot, and carefree, and snagging a hot date.

One of the other controversial remarks Guilfoyle made was when one of her cohosts was discussing the harmful stereotypes that could be perpetuated by St. Patrick’s Day, in relation to Irish American history. Guilfoyle announced that the Irish got over the fact that people perpetuate harmful stereotypes “They don’t run around going, ‘Irish Lives Matter.’”

She was referring to the #BlackLivesMatter movement which sprung from the disproportionate police violence enacted to on to Black Americans. Irish Americans, don’t currently experience much in the way of disproportionate police violence being and appearing white.

While the other hosts discussed the idea that most Irish Americans don’t seem offended by Irish stereotypes. Guilfoyle ignored their exchange and proclaimed that she once had “a very cute Notre Dame cheerleading costume that [she] decorated with little shamrocks.”

That sort of comment points to Guilfoyle’s less flattering depiction of herself. It’s not wrong for women to like, and discuss, and delight in “shallow” conversation. The problem here is that Guilfoyle is a television star, and in order to capture and entertain her audience, she seems to rely heavily on her “girlier” attributes, even when her co hosts are attempting to be authoritative.

This reliance doesn’t seem to fit the rest of Guilfoyle’s life. Guilfoyle was accomplished at a young age—she made ground breaking work and research. In her book “Making the Case: How to be your own best advocate,” Guilfoyle speaks about her relationship with her parents and how they strengthened her views on life. Of her father Guilfoyle said in an interview with Mediate,“He was the best coach in my life. I was a little shy and introverted, and he wanted me to be the woman who would stand on her own two feet and have the self-esteem and stand for myself, no matter what.”

This sentiment  sounds like the words of a true feminist, a women who would want to raise other women up regardless of their race, age, or political affiliation. Guilfoyle’s father also taught her that, “anything a boy can do, you [she] can do better.”

Guilfoyle represents a breed of women we don’t discuss often enough when talking about female empowerment. She’s smart, accomplished, and in many ways a good role model. She also manages to do everything she does while adhering to traditional feminine roles. But in doing so, is she also actively participating in harmful stereotypes to help herself get ahead? Can we be feminine and serious? Can we showcase our intellect? Can we raise others up as women and still succeed in our careers? It should be noted that all these points might not necessarily be true of Guilfoyle in her day to day life, but the character she portrays on television is becoming increasingly harmful.