Does not compute
Is NYT columnist Maureen Dowd a real person? As far as I know, she is. But sometimes I suspect the real Ms. Dowd is lounging at a tiki bar in St. Thomas while a dusty old program rearranges the copy, inserts new names and buzzwords and cranks out the same tired old column she originally wrote in 1993.
In the Platonic Ideal of a Dowd column, Democratic men lactate, Democratic women possess testicles and conservatives or nominally Democratic conservative archetypes get to embody their actual genders and be regarded as tough hombres regardless of their activities away from the klieg lights. Actual events the column purports to analyze may occasionally require role switches to make some inane point, but all elements are accounted for in some configuration. Today’s column on the Ron Suskind book that alleges sexism in the White House is no exception:
It’s passing strange that a man who was raised by a strong single mother, who talks affectionately about the influence of the banker grandmother who helped raise him, who married a strong woman, who lives with his mother-in-law and who has two daughters he adores, could ever create an Oval man-cave where some women felt uncomfortable.
Or maybe after all that petting and pecking by women, he just wanted to macho it up at the office, bonding by talking sports, playing sports and watching SportsCenter. This president in particular, though, has to be careful to make sure he includes the feminine perspective, even if it’s from men who have a full complement of it, like Joe Biden and David Axelrod.
Biden and Axelrod are girls. Girly Obama must get his macho on. Only men watch SportsCenter. Given the binary nature of the Dowdian worldview, it’s fairly easy to replace her with a program.
But Suskind is catching some flak for misquoting former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn in the book. Here’s the passage being trumpeted by PUMA lunkheads and wingnuts (who formerly characterized Dunn as a communist):
This place would be in court for a hostile workplace. ... Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”
Here’s what Dunn said, as recorded on tape by Suskind and played back to the WaPo at their request:
“I remember once I told Valerie that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” Dunn is heard telling Suskind. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”
A crucial bit of context, no? As for the women in the White House who felt frozen out by some sexist troglodytes on the team, I believe them. I’ve never worked in any large organization that was 100% sexist troglodyte-free. But at least their suffering gave MoDo’s program a chance to demonstrate its infinite capacity to apply gender stereotypes to any situation.
[H/T: YAFB in the RumperRoom]
Posted by Betty Cracker on 09/21/11 at 09:52 AM • Permalink
Categories: Politics • Election '12 • Election '08 • Barack Obama • Joe Biden • PUMAs • Nutters • Our Stupid Media •
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