For some reason, the Washington Post has decided that it’s going to try to alienate its women subscribers.
I can’t really think of another reason why its editors would decide to run two articles attacking women voters as dumb and fickle in its Sunday Outlook section.
Between We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get? and For Hillary’s Campaign, It’s Been a Class Struggle, I found my self shaking my head and wondering, why do we do this to ourselves?
Even if you buy that each article might have a legitimate point buried somewhere in those paragraphs, I don’t see any men penning essays this campaign season suggesting that guys are acting against their political self-interest if they don’t vote for the candidate of their gender or that men are somehow irrational in their electoral decisions if they display any emotion about the candidate of their choice.
Women labeling women as “dumb” and “fickle,” even in the name of humor or purported feminism, only gives men our implicit permission to continue dismissing our voices by turning our words against us. It makes me rethink the discussions I’ve been having with my eight-year-old daughter about whether it’s OK to be a “girly girl” or not. Maybe her second-grade intuition about this one is on the money.
Those who already believe that women don’t deserve much respect in the spheres of politics or business or law or medicine don’t really need our help in that department, do they?
It’s long past time to stop promoting the negative stereotypes that we’ve been fighting against for decades. In portraying women in the main stream media, where is the coverage to prove that “dumb” and “fickle” are the exceptions? We can make plenty of points, too.
I know I’m not the only woman with a political voice out here in the blogosphere, trying to use the new tools of social media to have conversations on this presidential race and the issues, and angles and nuances that so many of us believe are important.
WaPo editors, I’m not dumb or fickle. But I am ticked off.
And I’d be happy to write as many articles and op-eds as you’d like on what’s going on with political women in the blogosphere and how that’s changing our role in this election.
But that doesn’t have the controversy of having women scorning other women, does it?
March 7th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
You have to read the transcripts of the liveblog they had with the writer…(I posted a link over at http://linkateria.blogspot.com). She really, really hates women. She isn’t joking. It is kind of frightening, really. I question the editorial judgement that gave her a forum.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Even more interesting was Allen’s Q&A on the post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/03/04/DI2008030402153.html)
I had fun watching the exchanges just because she and her audience were at such cross purposes. She just didn’t get why she’d offended folks. They just didn’t get why she didn’t get that. And she seemed kinda defensive in places. One of those instances where you shouldn’t discuss matters of great import over a live Q&A where emotion doesn’t convey over oneliners.
And I have to say, when I first read those two articles, I thought to myself, “Maybe I just haven’t had enough tea yet, maybe there’s a point and I just don’t get it.” I was too sleepy on a sunday morning to be pissed.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I read the “We Scream” article and many of the comments, some striking me that women need to get over ourselves and take a joke.
If her article was a joke or a ha-ha jab at womankind, I missed the sarcasm or the eye wink.
The Washington Post should examine both this writer and the editorial staff who approved the article. Maybe they could do with a house cleaning.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Way to ruin fairly interesting topic about how women vote (or at least, that’s what I’m going to say might have been a good topic).
I’ve never seen penis envy so alive and well.
March 7th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Oh, the one who actually used the word “fickle” is that attention whore Linda somethin’-or-another. She’s also the one who said that (paraphrasing) SAHMs are morons who are wasting their lives. Book sales must have peaked.
March 7th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I read the Q&A. I couldn’t believe it. People are still claiming this was satire. I don’t think so.
As for Linda H., don’t get me started.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:48 am
If I read that paper I’d boycott it.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Articles like that make me want to shake people until their heads pop off. Everyone is dumb and fickle, dammit!
March 13th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Actually, I thought it was satire, too.
As did my 50 year old feminist-with-a Ph.D-who-volunteered-for-McGovern-wife.