Folks:

 

My mother has a keen eye for feminist wisdom in the mainstream press and
found this thoughtful op-ed by Susan Faludi in which I think the list may
also be interested.  My mother's take is one that many feminists have: "I
think women are also demeaned when men demean other men for being like us."


 

It will be interesting to see if this more tacit sexism is also
documented/noted by the Women's Media Project and mainstream sources such as
The Daily Show which have put together montages of sexist comments about
Hillary Clinton.  Tacit sexism ("He throws like a girl") tends to be more
socially acceptable even than the blatant sexism ("Iron my shirt"), and
attempts to point it out thus less effective with those who were appalled by
Sen. Clinton's treatment in the media.  We shall see.

 

Best,

  Alison Reiheld

 

 

June 15, 2008

Op-Ed Contributor

The New York Times


Think the Gender War Is Over? Think Again 


By SUSAN FALUDI

San Francisco

FOR months, our political punditry foresaw one, and only one, prospective
gender contest looming in the general election: between the first serious
female presidential candidate and the Republican male "warrior." But those
who were dreading a plebiscite on sexual politics shouldn't celebrate just
yet. Hillary Clinton may be out of the race, but a Barack Obama versus John
McCain match-up still has the makings of an epic American gender showdown. 

The reason is a gender ethic that has guided American politics since the age
of Andrew Jackson. The sentiment was succinctly expressed in a massive
marble statue that stood on the steps of the United States Capitol from 1853
to 1958. Named "The Rescue," but more commonly known as "Daniel Boone
Protects His Family," the monument featured a gigantic white pioneer in a
buckskin coat holding a nearly naked Indian in a death's grip, while off to
the side a frail white woman crouched over her infant. 

The question asked by this American Sphinx to all who dared enter the halls
of leadership was, "Are you man enough?" This year, Senator Obama has
notably refused to give the traditional answer. 

The particulars of that masculine myth were established early in American
politics. While the war hero-turned-statesman is a trope common to many
countries in many eras, it has a particular quality and urgency here, based
on our earliest history, when two centuries of Indian wars brought repeated
raids on frontier settlements and humiliating failures on the part of the
young nation's "protectors" to fend off those attacks or rescue captives.
The architects of American culture papered over this shaming history by
concocting what would become our prevailing national security fantasy -
personified by the ever-vigilant white frontiersman who, by triumphing over
the rapacious "savage" and rescuing the American maiden from his clutches,
redeemed American manhood. 

Aspirants to the White House have long known they must audition for the
Boone role in the "Rescue" tableau. Those who have pulled off a persuasive
performance, from Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower to John F.
Kennedy, have proved victorious at the ballot box. Even candidates lacking
in martial bona fides have understood the need to try to fake it with the
appropriate accessories - riding high in the saddle (Ronald Reagan),
commanding tanks (Michael Dukakis), wielding shotguns (John Kerry) or
brandishing chainsaws and donning flight suits (you know who).

Senator McCain may fit the model better than anyone. After all, he actually
starred in a real-life captivity narrative, having withstood five and a half
years of imprisonment by non-white tormentors, declining special treatment
and coming home a hero. "I have seen men's hopes tested in hard and cruel
ways that few will ever experience," he declared from the hustings. A
12-minute video on his Web site dwells on how his faith in the "fathers" and
his will "to fight to survive" got the young Navy pilot through Vietcong
bayonetings, bone smashings and bondage. 

The story's appeal is evident in the flood of news media adulation. The
worshipful tone of the last Newsweek cover article on Mr. McCain is typical.
The subtitle: "He's Endured the Unendurable and Survived." As the liberal
television watchdog group Media Matters for America has noted, the press is
most reverent about the candidate's humble refusal to trumpet his captivity
- even as his campaign advertises it freely. 

Although Senator McCain didn't rescue any helpless maidens, he outdid even
Daniel Boone in averting emasculating domination. Boone was a captive for
only a few months, and was widely suspected by his contemporaries of having
enjoyed his time with the Shawnees rather too much (he was adopted by the
Shawnee chief and evidently passed up several opportunities for escape). 

Senator Obama, for his part, will not be cast as the avenging hero in "The
Rescue" any time soon - and not because of the color of his skin or his lack
of military experience. He doesn't seem to want the role. You don't see him
crouching in a duck blind or posing in camouflage duds or engaging in
anything more gladiatorial than a game of pick-up basketball. If Mr. Obama's
candidacy seeks to move beyond race, it also moves beyond gender. A
20-minute campaign Web documentary showcased a President Obama who would
exude "a real sensitivity" and "empathy" and provide a world safe for the
American mother's son. Mr. Obama is surrounded in the video by pacifist -
not security - moms. 

If Mr. Obama's campaign has fashioned any master narrative, it's that of the
young man in the bower of a matriarchy - raised by a "strong" mother,
bolstered by a "strong" sister, married to a "strong" wife and proud of his
"strong" daughters. (Bill Clinton had a similar story, although his handlers
highlighted his efforts to save his mother from domestic violence.) 

"In many ways, he really will be the first woman president," Megan Beyer of
Virginia, a charter member of Women for Obama, told reporters. An op-ed
essay in The New York Post headlined "Bam: Our 1st Woman Prez?" came to a
similar conclusion, if a tad more snidely: "Those shots of Barack and
Michelle sitting with Oprah on stools had the feel of a smart, all-women
talk panel." 

Hillary Clinton's candidacy showed that a woman, too, can play the tough-guy
protector. But Mr. Obama takes the iconoclasm a step further - by suggesting
that martial swagger isn't what America needs anymore.

In the campaign ahead, expect a fierce Republican effort to reinstate the
nation's guardian myth - by demonstrating how the other party's candidate
fails to fit the formula. Had Mrs. Clinton been the candidate, she would no
doubt have faced more attacks for being too mannishly abrasive or,
conversely, too emotional to play the manly role. But Mr. Obama should
expect similar damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't gender assaults. He
will be cast either as the epicene metrosexual who can't protect the country
or else as the modern heathen with a suspicious middle name. 

The attacks are already under way, as is evident if one enters the words
"Obama" and "effeminate" into a search engine. The effeminacy canard lurks
in Mike Huckabee's imaginings of Mr. Obama tripping off a chair and diving
for the floor when confronted by a gunman, and in the words of Tucker
Bounds, Mr. McCain's campaign spokesman, who depicted Mr. Obama as
"hysterical."

News media blatherers and bloggers are taking up the theme. On MSNBC, Tucker
Carlson called Mr. Obama "kind of a wuss"; Joe Scarborough, the morning TV
talk show host, dubbed Mr. Obama's bowling style "prissy" and declared,
"Americans want their president, if it's a man, to be a real man"; and Don
Imus, the radio host, never one to be outdone in the sexual slur department,
dubbed Mr. Obama a "sissy boy." 

Will such attacks succeed? The wild card in the campaign drama to come is
9/11, which for a while kicked us into Daniel Boone overdrive. But in recent
years, the dangers and costs of that prolonged delusion have become
painfully apparent. In the primaries, a substantial portion of Democratic
voters turned away from the dictates of "The Rescue." In choosing between
Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain in the general election, Americans will pass a
referendum on 200 years of bedrock gender mythology.

Susan Faludi is the author of "Backlash," "Stiffed" and "The Terror Dream:
Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America."

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