MoDo: Taming of the Shrews

[kskiska]

Arabs put their women in veils. We put ours in the stocks.

Every culture has its own way of tamping down female power, be it sexual, political or financial. Americans like to see women who wear the pants be beaten up and humiliated. Afterward, in a gratifying redemption ritual, people like to see the battered women be rewarded.

That's how Hilary Swank won two Oscars. That's how Hillary Clinton won a Senate seat and a presidential front-runner spot. And that's how Martha Stewart won her own reality TV show and became a half-billion dollars richer while she was in prison.

(snip)

Why don't we need to see Oprah, another titan known by her first name, slapped back? Probably because Oprah never had an icy or phony side to her public persona and because her struggles in her childhood and with her weight take the edge off any animus that might be leveled at her for a net worth of $1.3 billion.

And what about Condi, who's now being touted for the Republican ticket in 2008? Perhaps she does not need to play the victim to make people feel better about her power because she was never seen as a termagant, pushing people around and bending them to her will. She always seemed subservient to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, a willing handmaiden and spokesman for their bellicose bidding.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/opinion/06dowd.html

[Maple]

1. Sounds to me

like 'Mo' has a few problems of her own with backing successful women.

[ElectroPrincess]

2. She's "out there" ... way out in the ozone

It's always tough for a woman to advance but I'm having a problem with Dowd's rationale. Perhaps there may be some personal internal turmoil on her part clouding the insight.

Whoa! <Twilight Zone Music> The vast majority of times IMHO she's on the mark.

But today? Double WHOA!

[aquart]

3. My email to dear Mo.

You really oughta keep that Hillary hate in check. The one who looks like a shrew is you.

But what's really saddest is that the perception of these women, these two Democratic women, Hillary and Martha, was the creation of a Republican-owned media and it's paid propagandists. Nothing these women could have done would have won them approval in that media. The American people loathed their success? No, the Republicans loathed it. And fear it.

Hillary isn't senator because she was humiliated. That is a disgusting rationalization you must have picked up at a media cocktail party. She's senator because she was the epitome of grace under fire. Because she was a lady when the rest of us would have been screaming. We made Martha rich when she offered us affordable elegance and beauty. K-Mart has her label front and center as you walk in the door.

Your Rovish analysis demeaned you, as you demeaned American women.

[The Zanti Regent]

4. Whoreen, if you want to see a shrew, look in the mirror

because NOBODY is a bigger shrew than YOU are.

PS--Take your Hillary hatred and stick it up your ass.