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Jewish World Review Dec. 1, 2000/ 5 Kislev, 5761
Marianne M. Jennings
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
IF YOU CAN'T say something nice about a woman, go and sit by a liberal.
They specialize in the art of bashing females.
The feminist movement, in theory, sought to bring "looks don't matter"
nirvana to a society addicted to curves, curls and cute. Our feminist
friends in comfortable shoes, complicated clothing, and complex turquoise
earrings wanted looks irrelevant, foundation passé and charm verboten. Al
Gore's style guru and feminist author, Naomi "earth tones" Wolfe refers, in
her agonizing tome on the vast male conspiracy to sell blush and
alpha-hydroxy cleansers, The Beauty Myth, to "the injustices done by beauty -
its presence as well as its absence."
There is, however, a footnote to the doctrine of appearance irrelevancy.
When confronted with a powerful woman who lacks proper ideological bent,
present claws, make ready, and fire insults. The wicked green eye of
jealousy, albeit eyelinerless, emerges.
Linda Tripp today is today virtually non-recognizable from that
tape-toting single mother who appeared outside her Virginia home in 1998.
Plastic surgery altered her face, exercise and diet reformed her physique and
Christophe tamed and highlighted her locks. Who can blame her? David
Letterman, a man who protested mightily when the New York Times speculated
that he was a "non-voting Republican," referred to her as "Michael Caine in
drag." That was one of his more charitable jokes about her looks. Her
appearance was the target for liberal sharpshooters who loathed the woman who
dared challenge the boy president's integrity.
Mr. Letterman has found a new target in Karen Hughes, George W. Bush's
communication director; her looks are now fair game.
Katherine Harris, Florida's secretary of state, who dared halt county
election boards' Carnac routines to divine votes, has brought out the
liberals' caustic best. She has not only seized late-night comics' insults,
she has earned mainstream press bashing. The Boston Herald described her as
"looking just ghastly." The Washington Post wrote Mrs. Harris, "seems to
have applied her makeup with a trowel."
Not ones to stop at looks, liberals are hurling other insults. The renowned
television lawyer and Harvard professor, Alan Dershowitz., told CNN's Wolf
Blitzer, who is surely a dead ringer for Ted Baxter of the old Mary Tyler
Moore Show, "She's corrupt. She's a crook." Little things such as no
criminal charges ever being brought against Mrs. Harris, let alone
prosecuted, don't seem to bother these Harvard types, especially when it
comes to conservative women.
There is the long list of appearance-slain Clinton women: Paula Jones
(James Carville said of her, "Drag a $100 bill through a trailer park, you
never know what you'll find."); Gennifer Flowers (for whom the term "bimbo
eruption" was coined); Kathleen Willey (in oddly defending Mr. Clinton
against her allegations of groping, supporters labeled them incredulous
because her chest was too small). Elizabeth Ward Gracen, a former Clinton
paramour, hid out of the country rather than face the insults, and she's a
former Miss America. If this is equality, I'll take Jane Austen's era. Even
the evil Fanny Dashwood was derided only as less "amiable." Harriet Smith
was graciously described as "certainly not clever" but having "a sweet,
docile, grateful disposition." I prefer these tame insults to the right to
own property.
Today vilification and politics of personal destruction reign. But the
politics of personal destruction is one-sided. Righteous indignation springs
forth when personal attacks come to liberals. When the Saturday Night Live
crew did a skit on Chelsea Clinton's teen awkwardness, they were forced to
issue an apology and refrain forever. I once suggested in a column that
Madeleine Albright, as secretary of state, not wear short skirts. She looked
like a one-woman wrestling match each time she sat down with a world leader.
Arafat averted his eyes using his purdah more than once. I was chastised
mightily for offering just an age-specific wardrobe tip for a cabinet member.
The beauty coup of the women's movement doesn't apply uniformly.
Democrats of the female persuasion, difficult as it is sometimes to tell, are
off limits when it comes to insults. Not once has Mr. Letterman joked about
Hillary Clinton's piano legs, Donna Brazile's weight, Carol Roberts' (the
Palm Beach county balloteer and marionette for team Gore) gravely voice, or
those Palm Beach voters who can't punch a chad and look like cross-dressers.
Such attacks are cruel. But, John Goodman playing Linda Tripp on Saturday
Night Live, now that's funny.
The piercing reality of the women's movement emerges once again. It was
never about women and equality - it was about liberalism. Those who rise in
opposition to liberals and liberalism are mocked publicly for being less than
11/20/00: Put me out of my misery
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