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Huck Maddow got not one, but TWO write-ups about her sexiness. Related write-ups, sure, but Huck is getting the boys and the girls to think dirty thoughts. The first article appears in The New York Times Style Magazine where Daphne Merkins applauds Maddow’s lesbian glamour:

Lesbianism has finally come into a glamour of its own, an appeal that goes beyond butch and femme archetypes into a more universal seduction. Her name is Rachel Maddow, the polished-looking, self-declared gay newscaster who stares out from the MSNBC studio every weekday night and makes love to her audience. She may not be one of Hefner’s Girls Next Door, exactly, but she is no bare-faced, unstylish dyke either,

. . . Maddow’s ambition has allowed her to play the mediagenic game: to be carefully made up, her brown eyes given depth with flattering eye shadow, her short (but not too short) haircut artfully coiffed. With her Poindexter glasses, Jil Sander pantsuits and Converse sneakers, she’s not trying to pass, but she’s willing to prettify her image sufficiently to endear her to male viewers.

Salon’s Judy Berman disagrees not that Huck is sexy, but how she is sexy: Why do we — men and women, gay and straight — find Rachel Maddow sexy?

More after the jump.

. . . Here’s where I disagree with Merkin: I don’t think Maddow’s TV appearance is particularly calculated to attract male viewers. The makeover doesn’t seem like a ploy to sex up Maddow; rather, it’s a concession to appearing on television, where everyone has to wear makeup and dress like a professional.

. . .And besides, I think Merkin misses something major about what makes Maddow sexy: the nerdiness! From the “Poindexter glasses” to the Oxford Ph.D. to her perfectly crafted sarcasm, Maddow is as geek-chic as she is lesbian-chic.

Yeah, I’m with the Salon writer. I’ve written about Huck Maddow’s great hair, but what’s really sexy about her is that she knows what she knows, and she wants you to know it too.