You know the thing about people who rail against "political correctness" is what they really desire is the ability to be as sexist, racist, and bigoted in public as they want without having to suffer your scorn and derision making them feel like the small shabby mean spirited twits that they are.
(Originally posted at DocuDharma as The Stars Hollow Gazette)
How else do you explain this?
Why Is Obama's Middle Name Taboo?
By NATHAN THORNBURGH, Time Magazine
Fri Feb 29, 1:50 PM ET
...
So who gets to say Hussein? At the Oscars, host Jon Stewart took innuendo about as far as it can go, saying that Barack Hussein Obama running today is like a 1940's candidate named Gaydolph Titler. But that reference, served up to a crowd that presumably swoons for Obama, got laughs. So maybe the H-word is more like the N-word: you can say it, but only if you are an initiate. Blacks can use the N-word; Obama supporters can use the H-word. |
We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?
By Charlotte Allen, The Washington Post
Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B01
...
I can't help it, but reading about such episodes of screaming, gushing and swooning makes me wonder whether women -- I should say, "we women," of course -- aren't the weaker sex after all. Or even the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial. Women "are only children of a larger growth," wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right? |
For Hillary's Campaign, It's Been a Class Struggle
By Linda Hirshman, The Washington Post
Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B01
...
For the Clinton campaign, this is devastating. A year ago, chief strategist Mark Penn proclaimed that the double-X factor was going to catapult his candidate all the way to the White House. Instead, the women's vote has fragmented. The only conclusion: American women still aren't strategic enough to form a meaningful political movement directed at taking power. Will they ever be?
Penn was right about the importance of the women's vote. About 57 percent of the voters in the Democratic primaries so far have been women. As of Feb. 12, Clinton had a lead of about seven percentage points over Obama among them (24 points among white women). But the Obama campaign reached out to the fair sex, following Clinton's announcement of women-oriented programs with similar ones within a matter of weeks. I can imagine the strategists for the senator from Illinois thinking, "What's that song in Verdi's 'Rigoletto'?" Women are fickle.
Turns out it's true.
...
Ominously for Clinton, the feminist movement split, generating a large number of "scribbling women" all over the blogosphere describing the gender-trumping call of the Obama candidacy. ...
...
Or maybe it has to do with what Pollitt expressed in a recent blog posting: "On foreign policy Obama seems more enlightened, as in less bellicose." Educated women focusing more on foreign policy fits with what we know about women and politics. Although at every class level, women know less than men do about politics in general, they know more as their education level goes up. So it may be that foreign policy issues are more salient to women with a college degree. |
(emphasis mine- ek)
Update-
Hat tip Atrios who first brought this to my attention (well, I think the Time Magazine link is unique).
He has a link later on to Laura Rosen's assessment-
Can the Post Outlook editor promote the slurring of women (in the name of "voice") but not other groups as something that generates lots of discussion?
Or can he commission articles to denigrate the intelligence of other racial groups as well in the same spirit of a lively and provocative debate?
What's the Post standard on which groups can be legitimately denigrated on which page? Let's watch and find out.
I bet the reaction will lean towards "tsk-tsk" in next week's ombudsman column and a hearty self congratulation from the Post to itself about generating such an important discussion about whether women are in fact dumb.
At the very least, we can hope a few of the fine Post reporters who actually do journalism will professionally humiliate Outlook editor John Pomfret and whoever else in the chain of command is responsible for this piece internally at the Post in the way they deserve. That there is not already an apology on the Post site is pretty surprising. |
If he can quote her maybe I can get away with it. I don't feel constrained by the author's formatting and this was all originally one half of one paragraph.
Over at MyDD you have a very funny and snarky piece-
Misogyny 101 For Women
by Natasha Chart, Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:22:28 PM EST
...
First, and most importantly, remember that rape is the woman's fault. Always. And it isn't really a problem. No, sirree. (Ahem. I meant, no Sir! Sorry if any of my male natural superiors took offense at my playful taking of their title in vain.)
...
Second, make sure and use the word "hysterical" in reference, however subtle or sidewise you need to make it, to positions and arguments likely to be advanced by other women.
...
Third, stereotypes are your friends.
...
Fourth, as often as possible, it's women and children.
...
Fifth, pull the 'catfight' card.
...
Well armed with these talking points, you'll quickly achieve dizzying heights (dizzy! hah!) of woman-bashing prowess. You can go ahead and simper to your conservative male cohorts as if it were no big, but your feminist counterparts will know the truth of your achievements. |
Over on Fire Dog Lake you have Jane Hamsher hitting racism-
And sexism-
More Updates-
At MyDD again, you have Natasha Chart again-
picking up on 2 posts referencing an odious article by Joel Stein in the L.A. Times that is unfortunately hidden behind a registration-
Several people have pointed out this piece in Politico-
Wash Post editor says controversial piece was 'tongue-in-cheek'
Michael Calderone
March 03, 2008
"If it insulted people, that was not the intent," Outlook editor John Pomfret told me this morning, calling the piece "tongue-in-cheek."
Pomfret said that Allen pitched the idea to him as a riff on women fainting at Obama rallies, and similarities with the Beatles. |
including Laura Rozen at War and Piece-
Laura is not buying it.
Also Atrios who brought it to my attention.
Jane Hamsher is back on the case at Fire Dog Lake with-
"Tongue In Cheek?" Nice Try.
By: Jane Hamsher Monday March 3, 2008 10:12 am
It's no coincidence that Allen has been writing anti-women pieces for the Independent Women's Forum (standard garden variety Title IX, feminist bashing stuff). The IWF is a wingnut welfare shop whose "directors emeritae" include Lynn Cheney and Kate O'Beirne. Basically they get a lot of money to to pretend to speak for women while working to undermine their rights. A real Frank Luntz doublespeak racket. |
So she ain't buying it either.
HuffPo contributor Rachel Sklar chimes in-
WaPo Writer Proves Own Thesis With Inane Op-Ed
Huffington Post | Rachel Sklar | March 3, 2008 10:16 AM
For smarter responses to this article — by boys! — Matt Yglesias, Jason Linkins, Jay Rosen, Glenn Reynolds, Shaun Mullen, Jay Newton-Small*, Steve Benen and PhD candidate Jake Young. Here are some other responses, but take them with a grain of salt because they were written by silly Botox-injecting, Obama-swooning, "Grey's Anatomy"-watching, "The Friday Night Knitting Club"-reading, eat-pray-loving women: Jane Hamsher, Amanda Marcotte, Jessica Valenti, Michelle Malkin, Jill Filipovic and Susan Reisman. |
She's done some link collecting too.
Fire Dog Lake commenter MademoiselleJ did some Charlotte Allen link collecting that Jane Hamsher reports in More Comedy Gold From Charlotte Allen and kos notes the controversy in Midday open thread.
Oh and Atrios and Laura are still not buying it.
On Fire Dog Lake, Jane gets around to Lynn Hirshman-
The Washington Post: Not Your Personal Therapy Session
By: Jane Hamsher Monday March 3, 2008 5:09 pm
There's got to be a better way for bitter, self-loathing women with meager IQ's to make a living than reinforcing the biases and stereotypes of men with want to work their mental health issues out in print. But be that as it may, as Deborah Howell notes, the Post's circulation is dramatically down on the distaff side. If they're at all interested in doing anything about it, letting Pomfret go work it out with his COBRA plan on some analyst's couch may be the healthier option for everyone involved. |