Dreams of my Real Father

[ismnotwasm]

There is a thread in GD about this, but I thought it relevant enough to post it here for feminist discussion. I've known about this book for some time because of a wing nut conspiracy person I know, but not the contents. The book's big point was supposed to be that President Obamas 'real" father was a communist activist who secretly indoctrinated the young future president into Marxism.

More appalling for my purposes here, is that the author claims to have compromising photos of Obamas mother in SMBD wear. In other words, she was a slut. In my opinion we have racism and sexism tied up here, because the more subtle (to some )message this privledged white male pig is ALSO sending is how could a white women be with a black man in the late fifties early sixties unless she was sexually promiscuous?

The DailyBeast has a good article on the book and upcoming movie

D’Souza argues that part of the reason Ann Dunham sent Obama to live with her parents in Hawaii was so she could pursue affairs with Indonesian men. “Ann’s sexual adventuring may seem a little surprising in view of the fact that she was a large woman who kept getting larger,” he writes. On the next page, he continues, “Learning about Ann’s sexual adventures in Indonesia, I realized how wrong I had been to consider Barack Obama Sr. the playboy … Ann … was the real playgirl, and despite all her reservations about power, she was using her American background and economic and social power to purchase the romantic attention of third-world men.”

There is no evidence for any of this—D’Souza mentions the name of exactly one man who Dunham had a relationship with after her divorce. Even if it was true, however, it’s hard to see how it’s relevant to Obama’s supposed taste for subversion, since as D’Souza himself points out, Obama wasn’t living in Indonesia at the time. The chapter is simply an expression of glandular-level contempt. It shows that a writer once considered a legitimate conservative intellectual has been reduced to sputtering “yo mama” at our president.

After the last four years, perhaps we shouldn’t expect anything more. That itself, however, is telling. In 2001, the Republican activist Barbara Olson was quoted saying, “Look at Bill Clinton’s mother, as opposed to George W.’s mother. Is your mother a barfly who gets used by men? Or is your mother a strong woman who demanded respect for her ideas and always received it?” She was widely condemned and issued an abject apology. D’Souza’s nastier words, by contrast, have barely caused a ripple. Conservative groups haven’t been scandalized by their association with Gilbert’s movie. This is who they are. There’s nothing left to be shocked about

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/28/with-dreams-from-my-real-father-have-obama-haters-hit-rock-bottom.html

[COLGATE4]

1. These pseudo-intellectual RW assholes

are beneath contempt.

[seabeyond]

2. the woman michelle kicks ass in the video. i dont know the man. but....

i bet michelle wanted to tell him to QUIT touching her. her body language.

it is what i having been saying forever. how our sexuality is continually and constantly used against us in every way. why embracing this mentaliy fails.

what i found really fun about the thread in gd is always being told how much we respect and cheer these women on for their good choices and empowering themselves be it porn or prostitution, here almost exclusively people were outraged they would pin this on the mom. if we truly didnt not have a negative impression to the act, then there would have been a hell of a lot more.... meh. i thought that telling.

i loved this.

reduced to sputtering “yo mama” at our president.