Carey Roberts
Feminists are a bunch of irrational ninnies
By Carey Roberts
I've been waiting all day to unload this, so sit down and get ready for a good belly-laugh...
Remember Susan Estrich? She was Michael Dukakis' campaign manager for his disastrous presidential run in 1988. But washed-up liberals don't shrivel up and blow away, they reinvent themselves as pundits and news analysts.
Apparently Ms. Estrich, the Grand-Dame of feminist victimology, has taken great offense at Apple Computer's decision to name its newest electronic gizmo, iPad. So last week she penned a column called "The Value of Diversity." Blazing away with her gendered six-shooter, Estrich issued this scathing pronouncement:
"Is there a woman in America who did not laugh, or at least roll her eyes, the minute she heard that the newest, hottest tablet computer from one of America's most ingenuous companies was going to sound like a feminine hygiene product? The iKotex is what most people I know are calling it, with apologies to Kotex."
The moral of Estrich's preposterous complaint? That Apple needs to bring more women into the upper echelons of corporate decision-making.
Really, how can anyone with a claim to sanity come to view the name of a cute digital device as proof of gender oppression?
This isn't the first time Ms. Estrich got her wires crossed.
Eight years ago Clara Harris ran over her ex-husband David, as their daughter sat in the front seat of the car. I've seen the tape, it's sickening to watch the violent woman repeatedly drive her car over David's prostrate body. The woman was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to hard time.
But Estrich thought the woman's actions were completely justifiable. "Who could blame [Clara] for getting into her Mercedes and running him over?", Estrich later asked.
Lindsey Harris, who had pleaded with her mother to cease the slaughter, took issue with Estrich's bizarre rationalization. The young woman denounced her mother's rampage as "the ultimate act of selfishness, caring only about obtaining revenge and thinking not one bit about how her horrible act was going to affect me or my brothers, Brian and Bradley."
Amazingly, there are other persons out there who believe Clara Harris was doing what any woman in full possession of her senses would do.
One such person is Regina Barreca, PhD (gb@ginabarreca.com), professor of feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. Berreca bills herself as putting the "funny in feminism" — but a passing glance at the titles of her books reveals a lady with a well-honed ax to grind: "I'm With Stupid: One Man, One Woman, and 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up," and "Perfect Husbands (and Other Fairy Tales)."
And what does Berreca have to say about husband-killer Clara Harris? Repeatedly running over her ex was a "great moment of revenge," she lucidly explains. That adumbration of the truth graces the current issue of Psychology Today.
And then the grand brouhaha over the recent Super Bowl ad featuring former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam. Conveying a soft-sell pro-life message, the advertisement shows the muscle-clad football player playfully tackling his mother.
Almost everyone in the universe knew it was a joke.
Except for National Organization for Women president Terry O'Neill, who pitiably proclaimed herself Highly Offended: "I am blown away at the celebration of the violence against women in it." Railing against the network airing the ad, O'Neill exclaimed, "I think CBS should be ashamed of itself."
Five years ago Susan Estrich had a very public hissy-fit when she discovered only a fraction of the L.A. Times op-eds were written by women. A few days later the Times ran a piece by Charlotte Allen explaining the relative dearth of female writers: "Ideological feminism has ghettoized and trivialized the subject matter of women's writing."
Once upon a time, feminists haughtily proclaimed their movement was intended to eradicate the stereotype of air-headed women who couldn't think calmly or act rationally. Funny how feminism has become a gaudy parody unto itself.
© Carey Roberts
February 9, 2010
I've been waiting all day to unload this, so sit down and get ready for a good belly-laugh...
Remember Susan Estrich? She was Michael Dukakis' campaign manager for his disastrous presidential run in 1988. But washed-up liberals don't shrivel up and blow away, they reinvent themselves as pundits and news analysts.
Apparently Ms. Estrich, the Grand-Dame of feminist victimology, has taken great offense at Apple Computer's decision to name its newest electronic gizmo, iPad. So last week she penned a column called "The Value of Diversity." Blazing away with her gendered six-shooter, Estrich issued this scathing pronouncement:
"Is there a woman in America who did not laugh, or at least roll her eyes, the minute she heard that the newest, hottest tablet computer from one of America's most ingenuous companies was going to sound like a feminine hygiene product? The iKotex is what most people I know are calling it, with apologies to Kotex."
The moral of Estrich's preposterous complaint? That Apple needs to bring more women into the upper echelons of corporate decision-making.
Really, how can anyone with a claim to sanity come to view the name of a cute digital device as proof of gender oppression?
This isn't the first time Ms. Estrich got her wires crossed.
Eight years ago Clara Harris ran over her ex-husband David, as their daughter sat in the front seat of the car. I've seen the tape, it's sickening to watch the violent woman repeatedly drive her car over David's prostrate body. The woman was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to hard time.
But Estrich thought the woman's actions were completely justifiable. "Who could blame [Clara] for getting into her Mercedes and running him over?", Estrich later asked.
Lindsey Harris, who had pleaded with her mother to cease the slaughter, took issue with Estrich's bizarre rationalization. The young woman denounced her mother's rampage as "the ultimate act of selfishness, caring only about obtaining revenge and thinking not one bit about how her horrible act was going to affect me or my brothers, Brian and Bradley."
Amazingly, there are other persons out there who believe Clara Harris was doing what any woman in full possession of her senses would do.
One such person is Regina Barreca, PhD (gb@ginabarreca.com), professor of feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. Berreca bills herself as putting the "funny in feminism" — but a passing glance at the titles of her books reveals a lady with a well-honed ax to grind: "I'm With Stupid: One Man, One Woman, and 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up," and "Perfect Husbands (and Other Fairy Tales)."
And what does Berreca have to say about husband-killer Clara Harris? Repeatedly running over her ex was a "great moment of revenge," she lucidly explains. That adumbration of the truth graces the current issue of Psychology Today.
And then the grand brouhaha over the recent Super Bowl ad featuring former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam. Conveying a soft-sell pro-life message, the advertisement shows the muscle-clad football player playfully tackling his mother.
Almost everyone in the universe knew it was a joke.
Except for National Organization for Women president Terry O'Neill, who pitiably proclaimed herself Highly Offended: "I am blown away at the celebration of the violence against women in it." Railing against the network airing the ad, O'Neill exclaimed, "I think CBS should be ashamed of itself."
Five years ago Susan Estrich had a very public hissy-fit when she discovered only a fraction of the L.A. Times op-eds were written by women. A few days later the Times ran a piece by Charlotte Allen explaining the relative dearth of female writers: "Ideological feminism has ghettoized and trivialized the subject matter of women's writing."
Once upon a time, feminists haughtily proclaimed their movement was intended to eradicate the stereotype of air-headed women who couldn't think calmly or act rationally. Funny how feminism has become a gaudy parody unto itself.
© Carey Roberts
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