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Amal Clooney Fascinating: Was Barbara Walters’ Reasoning Sexist?

By Sarah Field
Published on: 16:30 PST, Dec 15, 2014

Amal Clooney, the former Amal Alamuddin, took top spot on Barbara Walters’ list of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2014. On Sunday night, Walters capped off her two-hour special on ABC by revealing the name of the one person who captured the world’s attention over the past year. The day after the special, many commentators were remarking on the seemingly outdated description of what made Amal fascinating: not her professional achievements, but who she married.

Gawker provided a list of Walters’ reasons for choosing Amal, which the writer summarized as “Why is Mrs. George Clooney the most fascinating person of 2014? Well, because she’s Mrs. George Clooney but also so much more, but especially Mrs. George Clooney.”

The Vox headline was blunt: “Amal Clooney married down. She’s way more fascinating than George.”

Toronto Star writer Vinay Menon called Walters’ characterization of Amal “astonishingly sexist.” Menon reviewed the human rights lawyer’s staggering resume, including her high-profile clientele and her expertise in international law. Then the Star writer quotes Walters in the special: “Let’s see, how do I introduce her? I guess the question is, ‘What does it take to fascinate one of the most fascinating men in the world?” Menon described his blown-over reaction.

“I fell out of my own chair, which was not so bad, since I suddenly needed to get up to check the fridge calendar to make sure it was 2014. Excuse me? That is the question? This is how we’re framing the most fascinating person. We’re reducing her to a hypnotizer of hunky bachelors?”

Amal Clooney Tops Walters Most Fascinating

Things only got worse for Menon when Walters described Amal Alamuddin’s wedding to Clooney as “one of the greatest achievements in human history.”

This feeling was shared by many viewers who took to Twitter to admonish Amal Clonney’s portrayal as simply George’s wife.

The Washington Post noted the irony in Walters’ declaring the list was more “female-centric” than lists in the past, because of distinguished female achievement, and then her choice of Amal Clooney on the basis of her marriage. As for the “greatest achievement” comment, Post writer Emily Yahr had an analysis of that too.

“It was said in perfect deadpan, proving that Walters either has an advanced and sophisticated sense of comic timing, or that she is just trolling us all.”

Vanity Fair chose to defend Walters and her characterization of Clooney, admitting that the former Amal Alamuddin is a non-celebrity that the public knows little about.

“It’s not wholly unfair to describe Amal in the context of her wedding, after all she’s a relatively private person and the details we do know about the human rights lawyer (she clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, she has counted Julian Assange, Yulia Tymoshenko, and Kofi Annan among her clients) are few and far between. So Walters, instead, chose to spin the fairytale angle of Amal Clooney’s life.”

[Image Via all4women.co.za]

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