PIMPGATE was pretty much the end for me. Not just the comment itself but also the response both here and the rest of the blogosophere. The fact that people actually defended it, the fact we actually debated whether or not the phrase was now a socially acceptable part of the pop lexicon. What was most shocking of all is that because it was made in the so-called political arena, no one bothered to see the comment in the broader cultural context. Did anyone stop to think about the fact that this is a culture that promotes sleazy Lynne Spears, who really DID pimp out both her daughters, that promotes the likes of Paris Hilton, who doesn't have one single redeeming characteristic, that promotes misogynst brain-waste like "America's Next Top model" and "The Hills," that celebrates the over-sexualization of young girls in every way and in every medium from demeaning "American Idol" and trashy "Tyra" on up --- and yet, we tear down Chelsea Clinton, who is a brilliant and beautiful young women, raised in the spirit of public service, successful, articulate, humble; who clearly has a close and healthy relationship with both her parents, so rare in our society , who clearly loves her mother, who the media is desperate to cast as a political Lynne Spears. For shame.
In this culture we tear down women to build men up. I can't separate the trashing of Chelsea from the hero-worship of Barack. I'm sorry, i just can't. No one wants to admit it.
Sex and race, the two things that power this culture right down to its deepest foundations are apparently off limits as topics for dicsussion this primary season - well, WHO DECIDED THAT? And what it REALLY means is that we can't talk about race, but we CAN talk about sex, we can call mothers "pimps" and daughters "whores," but we can't call a black candidate a black candidate; we can question and denigrate a woman candidate for having her daughter campaign for her, but we can't question a man's past drug abuse, a topic also apparently off limits even though the same quesionable character behavior has killed other men's political hopes and dreams. We can demand that the woman not act like a woman, that she be hard and tough, and then lambast her when she does act like a woman. Yet, we champion and valorize the touchy-feel man who can tap into our emotions and "inspire" us in fits of feeling. We ridicule the woman who tears up, and yet we demand that the man make us tear up.
Let's get this straight: MSNBC made the pimp comment in order to further build up Barack. It was said to make the Clintons look sleazy and therefore to make Barack look pure. It was made in the "spirit" of contrast.
And it also shows what a joke Barack's fundamental appeal to his minions is: to "change the tone of politics," or to "change the way politics is done." When they are the ones who are debating whether or not it is acceptable to say Hillary is "pimping out" Chelsea. I didn't see Barack come out against this kind of political discourse, I didn't hear him say anything about it at all.
The bottom line is that this culture is a destructive one and this campaign is nothing more than a glorified reality TV show - a larger than life extended run of something like a political version of The Bachelor. How bad can he be? and yet we let him get away with it because he's a cocky attractive man. How vindictive and bitchy can we make her look? because she's a poltical golddigger and everyone knows that, right? And no, since they're just cardboard cuttouts, into whom the masses need to pour their hate or their hopes, respectively - no other emotions allowed! We can't talk about any deep or meaningful life experiecnes they may had or NOT had, because in TV land there is no such thing as History.
In reality TV land the candidates are stripped down to their basic TV essentials:
---she is, naturally, a whore
---he is, naturally, a hero
because that is what we as the enthralled audience demand they be in the end.
But one thing to keep in mind, in this culture that we have created, the heros always at some point have to be brought down, too. No one is allowed to "transcend" the culture itself; no one is allowed to go beyond the bounds set for us by our masters, the TV executives.
You can't say you want to change the tone of politics, and yet do battle and exist as as persona, rather than a real person, in the arena that is setting the parameter for those poltiics, and shaping those politics. Unless you are using that media and manipulating that media to further your own interests, to dupe the adoring audience. That is just good old cynicism at work and anyone who doesn't acknoweldge and recognize that is just dumb, or in a willful state of suspension of disbelief, in my opinion.
So, for today, I've decided that it doesn't really make a shred of difference who wins the election, because all of this is going to keep on going the way it goes. And it will probably just get worse, more destructive, and more violent. For instance, anyone seen Untraceable?