Is a new, different naked woman. ;)
It seems that our Secretary of State is offended and ashamed by the naked female form.
From U.S. News and World Report:
Foreign Affairs, the Economist, and certainly U.S.News & World Report are titles you'd expect to see at the two State Department newsstands visited by the public, employees, and their kids, but Playboy and Penthouse? Yikes! Or so thought Condoleezza Rice a while back when she began receiving briefings in Foggy Bottom before her confirmation hearings as secretary of state. Alerted by an aide that the skin magazines, partially clad in brown paper covers, were placed beside newsmagazines and close to candy, nuts, and stuffed animals, she said, "I want them out."
You go girl! Get those magazines out! Make them respect your authority!
But wait a minute....
No one at the State Department is being forced to read, look at or purchase these magazines. These magazines are not displayed openly to the general public as it appears they are tastefully covered in brown paper bags. I highly doubt that these magazines are lying around within the State Department. I further doubt that these magazines are being read at work.
So, what's the problem?
A few weeks later, when she took over from Colin Powell, the eviction began. "The secretary wanted them gone immediately," says senior adviser Jim Wilkinson." She didn't understand how a department that claimed to fight for the rights of women worldwide could sell pornography that degrades women."
Madam Secretary, with all due respect, shut the fuck up. Your husband's administration has denied federal funding to assist with women's birth control and abortion choices, has refused to fund any sex education that even discuss safe sex, has instead supported religious charities through its faith based initiative that won't distribute condoms in AIDS-ravaged Africa, has, along with Tom DeLay, fought like hell to keep the government from enacting worker protection for the women and children exploited in the Philippines and Marianas for cheap labor and sexual slavery, all the while doing nothing to fight against the ritualized clitoridectomies happening throughout the world!
You, Madam Secretary, have no right to say your department, or anyone in your husband's administration, fights for the rights of women. You fight against them. You enslave them, either literally or by limiting their rights and choices. So, really, shut the fuck up.
Further, (and this will most definitely start a pie war of some kind), I am so sick of the "pornography degrades women" canard. Yes, there are levels of pornography and the sex industry that take advantage of and degrade women, but that's not the Playboy or Penthouse level. Those magazines are highly professional and pay very well. A centerfold within has been the launching point for many successful careers.
Finally, I am not too keen on censorship of any kind. Today, our Madam Secretary says with respect to Playboy or Penthouse, "I want them out!"
What's next?
Newsweek? Yeah, I hear Newsweek includes funny cartoons of the President and the Madam Secretary often. I hear Newsweek is very critical of her husband's administration. Indeed, some of Madam Secretary's esteemed conservative may even call Newsweek ....eeek....LIBERAL!
How long until we hear Madam Secretary screech "I want them out!"
Yes, censorship is one of those slippery slopes.
Indeed, it appears we are already sliding down it.
[Senior advisor Jim Wilkinson] teamed with State's internal manager and several State women who had been campaigning against the publications but had gotten nowhere. Now that they have succeeded, some of those women are eyeing other lad mags like Maxim and FHM.
You see why we don't censor Madam Secretary? Do you understand, or do you need color graphs and charts?