"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
22 May 2007Whither thou goest ... oh, never mindMichelle Obama is stepping back from her position at the University of Chicago Hospitals to help support her husband's Presidential campaign, and that's so wrong, says Debra Dickerson:
Any day now, Michelle Obama's handlers will have her glued into one of those Sunday-go-to-meeting Baptist grandma crown hats while smiling vapidly for hours at a time. When, of course, she's not staring moonstruck, à la Nancy Reagan, at her moon doggie god-husband who's not one bit smarter than she is.
My heart breaks for her just thinking about it. Being president will be hard. So will being first lady for the brilliant Michelle — imagine, having to begin all your sentences with "My husband and I..." Obviously she needs to dump Moon Doggie while the dumping is good, because, after all, she's going to get second billing. A true tragedy of our times. Damn that patriarchy, anyway:
I'm not blaming her. Few could stand up to the pressure she's facing, especially from blacks, to sacrifice herself on the altar of her husband's ambition. He could be the first black president, you know! Also, she must be beside herself trying to hold things together for her daughters. I'm blaming the world and every man, woman, child and border collie in it who helps send the message that women's lives must be subordinate to everyone else's.
Yep. Dump him. There's no other way. After all:
"You know, I'm not that into labels.... So probably, if you laid out a feminist agenda, I would probably agree with a large portion of it," she said. "I wouldn't identify as a feminist just like I probably wouldn't identify as a liberal or a progressive."
How difficult it must be for someone so whip smart and so famously blunt, according to insiders, to have to mouth these political pieties. And how horrible it must be to refuse to accept a label in an era desperate for litmus tests.
Men used to oppress women. Now feminists oppress women. We've come a long way, baby.
Oppression? Maybe. One person believing so strongly in the bill of goods she's been sold that she's compelled to defend it even when one of its inherent contradictions is staring her in the face? Definitely. A jackboot with a stylish 3½-inch heel is a jackboot still. Posted at 6:30 PM to Table for One"A jackboot with a stylish 3½-inch heel is a jackboot still." Yeah. But Vive la Différence! Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 6:57 PM on 22 May 2007A jackboot with a stylish 3½-inch heel is a jackboot still. Whereas a jackboot with a stylish 3½-inch heel under a leather catsuit is totally hawt. Posted by: McGehee at 10:14 PM on 22 May 2007Ah yes, the heeled jackboot ... but can she give good attitude? :) Posted by: Ron at 10:49 AM on 23 May 2007I agree that the doctrinaire-ness of Michelle Obama's critic is dreadful, but don't you think that it would in fact be difficult to go from being able to think and speak entirely for oneself to knowing you must speak and be heard entirely as someone else's appendage? Being (and/or campaigning to be) first lady is like stepping back into 1950's marriages. I doubt there's a way to change the set-up but I do think it would be quite hard for someone not accustomed to that way of thinking and acting. Posted by: Anne at 12:02 PM on 23 May 2007It might be difficult; on the other hand, I have to presume that she's capable of making the transition, if only because she's proven herself in a variety of other realms. (Besides, it would be unkind, at the very least, to take "No, she can't adjust" as the default position.) I'd say the same for Mrs Kucinich, who had a short but intense life of her own before becoming, well, Mrs Kucinich. She can always do a Hillary and run later, using the many contacts developed during her husband's time in office. Does that help? Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 8:26 PM on 23 May 2007 |
