One of the writers in the blogosphere I most admire is Jeanne D'Arc of
Body and Soul. She combines "Bobby Kennedy" liberalism (a paleo-lib like me) with compassion and a deep understanding of the human condition. In this post,
"Our President, the mammoth snack" she takes apart (and demolishes, in my eyes at least) Berkeley Linguistics professor George Lakoff's
"Strict Father, Nurturant Mother" frame as a tool for helping progressives take back the economic and tax issues from the hard right. Jeanne's critique is feminist and I think it is right on.
Digby has taken on this critique as well this week.
She says:
Basically, I think Digby's right that if you frame the issue as the daddy party vs. the mommy party (you can call it "nurturing," but everyone still hears "mommy"), the mommy party loses. People want the party of "masculine" strength. But real masculinity is more complicated and includes women. (Well, heterosexual masculinity anyway. There's an obvious flaw in my metaphor here, and I don't want to feed anti-gay stereotypes while trying to fight anti-female ones, but I don't see a way around it at the moment; another reason why I need to keep thinking about this). The frame I'm aiming for contrasts phony, immature masculinity vs. real, sexual, smart masculinity that prefers life with women and a community rather than being out in the field with a spear and a mammoth.
Thank you, Jeanne. Washington is such a testosterone drenched city that I sometimes forget the feminist critique. This is a city which is all about power, and that makes it the most self-absorbed place I have ever lived. So many people are obsessed with where they are on the one-up scale. Compared with my upper Midwestern roots, Washington, particularly under the current administration, is a rude, thoughtless place. The tone is masculine, of the immature kind Jeanne outlines above. This is not an easy city for a woman, you have to turn yourself into a pretend man if you want to compete.
Which means it's time to introduce a poll. In recent days, Kos has given us polls about the age and geographical distrubution of the Kossaks. Now let's find out...