The Romneys in March after a Super Tuesday victory. Photo by BU Interactive News via Flickr.com.

Where to begin?

“Ann Romney Takes Biggest Stage Yet to Humanize Husband,” reads a recent Bloomberg Businessweek headline.

Sure, this seems funny — here’s a presidential candidate who comes across more as a cold, calculating robot than a warm, empathic person.

But it actually speaks to something quite sad about American politics.

The relationship between women and the highest political position in the land still is not perceived or publicized as a direct one.

Rather, the stories surrounding wives of presidents or would be commanders-in-chief typically foster the notion that females’ roles in relation to this office (and men in general) is a supporting one.

Sure, people do help out family members — especially when they’re running for office. Fine. That makes sense and we’re not taking issue with that.

What we would like to see is the ever-popular narrative of presidential wives unfolding just a little differently. When we tell the stories of these women, we should take extra care to treat them as their own people — even if they don’t always treat themselves that way.

Ann Romney, Bloomberg Businessweek, Mitt Romney