Having read it, I am too.
Bob is one of the all time sexists. I was going to note, when I was thinking of writing of him here, that I was aware of his efforts to note the Canadian sisters. They weren't all that talented -- nor are the dead one's children -- but, hey, finally Bob can recognize a woman after years and years of quoting male artists only.
We define the canon. That's the reality.
The rock cannon is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and it's so sexist because (a) Jann Wenner and (b) because we let a sexist canon develop. I was not a 'woman's studies' major. (Poli Sci and Sociology for under grad and my graduate degrees were Sociology, Philosophy and Poli Sci.) And I had very few female professors. The bulk of the men were far from 'enlightened.' Meaning, whether it was a lit class, a history class, a poli sci, whatever, I was the one bringing in the women. Because women were absent from all the curriculum, you either brought them in on your own or you endorsed the sexism.
In terms of online, I had a real problem with PUMA. I support their righteous anger. I support their desire for change. I support them not staying quiet just because a bunch of men (and some women) told them to.
But I had a really hard time with their websites. Especially on weekends. They'd post about music or movies.
And it would be all men.
Gals, you're PUMA, you're feminists, why is your range of reference all male?
We create the canon. From the start here, online, I have lived that. We note Diana Ross, we note Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos, the late Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Eryka Badu, Melanie, PP Arnold, the late Laura Nyro, Cher, Sade, Stevie Nicks . . . Check the archives. 96% of our musical references are women. Because I do believe women create and have created great art, absolutely. But I also believe that we have to improve things. Alice Walker -- cited here endlessly -- says she writes the world she wants to live in. Absolutely. It's about owning your power. And I can't control Bob Somerby's website or the sexism that goes on there. But I am in charge of this website and we use women as reference points.
So we note Alice, Anais Nin, Anne Sexton, etc.
We praise women and we take them seriously enough to call them out when need be.
Bob likes to call out women. He does. Really, really does. He's got a cabal of women who overthrew his sainted Al Gore. Now men were part of that but, as we've long noted here, THE DAILY HOWLER's always had the opinion that men can be redeemed but women -- especially those named CeCe or Seelye -- are hopeless and, apparently, criminally insane.
Bob will grudge f**k a woman forever. (As noted before, Bob's friend has threatened me in e-mails. Bob's friend also stalked Rebecca. After first writing her hideous e-mails that read like a school boy's sexual longing.)
But I was going to note him because I like to think that I can wind down soon (close shop here -- but I've been hoping for that day since 2007). Then he wrote the garbage today.
No, Nancy Pelosi is not a feminist hero. We addressed that repeatedly over the years and most recently in this snapshot where we point out that Queen Bee Nancy made sure she rose but others didn't rise with her -- other women.
If this news -- from a SLATE columnist today -- that Nancy's no great feminist is a novel concept for Bob, it's because he doesn't pay attention nor does he understand gender issues.
Here Bob starts edging himself over his former roommate Al Gore again:
She may not recall the poisonous, dimwitted "gendered cliches" which rained down on the heads of many major male Democrats in the era of Maureen Dowd, for whom every Democratic man was a woman and every Democratic woman was a man. (That first group included John Edwards, "the Breck Girl," but also Barack Obama, the "diffident debutante.")
These cliches rained down on many heads, but especially on the head of Candidate Gore, with Chris Matthews assuring the world, again and again, that Gore was "today's man-woman," and with every hack from here to eternity repeating the prehistoric claim that Candidate Gore had "hired a woman [Naomi Wolf] to teach him how to be a man." What explains these atrophied brains? We can't tell you that!
I don't know that Maureen's offering gender cliches. I do know that part of her appeal is humor. Can we go through Bob's comedy act (he had one, years and decades ago) and examine his jokes? He hates Dowd so much and it's largely due to her gender. It has nothing to do with her work. As we pointed out in one snapshot (GOOGLE it), Bob wasn't even aware that Dowd had called out the Iraq War and, yes, had called out Condi Rice.
The quoted section above is problematic beyond his Dowd comments.
Gore "hired a woman to teach him how to be a man"? That's not sexism. That may or may not be an accurate statement.
Saying that he hired Naomi to pick out his clothes was sexism.
The same way it was sexism in 1972 when the media said Gloria Steinem picked out George McGovern's ties. Bob can't tell you about that because the world doesn't exist for him before 1992.
Gloria was not picking out McGovern's ties, Naomi wasn't picking out Al's ties.
(The woman picking out Al's ties in 1992 was "E" who Al was sleeping with behind Tipper's back. When I wrote of that, with Ava, at THIRD about ten years ago, I wasn't aware Tipper didn't know. Oh well.)
Bob doesn't understand sexism. Again, saying Naomi was supposed to teach Al how to be a man is not sexism.
(For the record, I donated to Al Gore's 2000 campaign, I campaigned for Al around the country and, yes, I voted for him.)
Bob goes on to whine about Hillary's e-mails and how Jeffrey Toobin -- an idiot and a hack -- is saying that he himself spent too much time on then and why look at the young Trumps (I don't know their names, I don't need to -- I'm an adult with a satisfied and busy life). Don't look at the Trumps. Hillary used private e-mail accounts -- plural -- and set up a private server. She did not keep copies for preservation. When she was told to provide those copies, she instead deleted many and turned over some. Of the deleted ones, yes, there were ones with classified information.
Hillary's actions were a security risk.
If the Trump kids are doing the same, call them out. But, at present, we're pretending that a private e-mail address is all Hillary did?
That's b.s. and dishonest.
Bob quotes the SLATE columnist:
But there’s something obsessive, almost feral, about the way Republicans sink their teeth into Democratic women, especially women of color, regardless of how much power they actually wield. You can see it in Republicans’ fixation on Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has never held political office; in the proliferation of Rep. Maxine Waters’ image in the sort of right-wing memes that populated mail bomber Cesar Sayoc’s Twitter feed; and in the continued smearing of Hillary Clinton.
Do you know what's terrifying? That the columnist -- is she White? Let's check.
Yes, she is. Are we really surprised?
IDEA
Everyone stop being sexist so we can have an honest conversation about Nancy Pelosi’s political leadershipI'm not.
Maxine Waters, if she's unfairly targeted, faces dual discrimination in that she is both a woman and a person of color. How sad that White girl Chrissy doesn't think racism could factor into it, just sexism. Everybody lower your voices, let's not wake Chrissy from her dream world.
It's also true that Maxine Waters is calling for personal attacks.
She does that by insisting that you get up in the face of Trump administration officials. No, Maxine, that's bat s**t insane. And I say that as someone who knows Maxine and actually likes Maxine. But you will note that I called that crap out in real time.
Maxine has many wonderful qualities. But when she embraces the crazy, she deserves to be called out and I will call her out. Now the GOP? What about them? She's talking complete crazy and so they are going to respond.
I've stayed out of the AOC coverage. But let's be clear, it's not sexism to call her out or focus on her. The media made her a star. Why? She hadn't accomplished anything. She repeatedly backtracked on promises (and she disappeared peace from her website until called out loudly and publicly). She's a nothing and, yes, she has lied. She's not working class and she pretended to be and some people still believe she is.
She was on COMEDY CENTRAL and where else?
And why?
She wasn't Beto who needed the coverage to get support. She was facing no real obstacle to winning her race. But it was throw her on TV and let's pretend that she has an accomplishment to speak of. She has none. Maybe she will someday. I hope so. But at present, she's Lydia Cornell. (Yes, you can call me a bitch, that's fine.) She's useless. I loved it when a friend said of Lydia (quoted in a magazine years ago), "Who? She's a glossy individual who really hasn't stood out." It makes me laugh to this day. This was when Lydia had a p.r. person trying to make her a star (never happened) while she gave poor performances on the hideous TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT.
She's 65 now and she still hasn't accomplished anything.
Let's hope AOC has better luck.
But at present, she's a PEOPLE magazine story in the 70s or a VANITY FAIR one in the 90s -- and she's not lived up to the hype.
So, yes, she's going to be mocked. Is that sexism?
I don't think so.
Most of them mocked Beto too. They didn't mock his public spanking because I guess they never saw that video. But what if they did see his public spanking (he was fully clothed in the bar)?
I imagine they'd go to town with it.
It's not sexism to criticize someone. Bob criticizing a woman doesn't make him a sexist. Bob's zeal for destroying and attacking women makes him a sexist. Help me, please, with when he's attacked a man the way he did Kit Seeyle? Or, for that matter, Rachel Maddow?
I don't like Rachel but one of the reason I don't read Bob is because it's the daily attacks on Rachel. Does he not realize how those come off?
I think he creates sympathy for her.
Again, we criticize women here. Women should not be treated with kid gloves and those of us who are feminists do not ask for that.
But we do ask for a sense of perspective.
Bob has none. Even going after Chris Matthews, it's not like the way he attacked Kit (or still attacks her) or the way he goes after Rachel or Maureen Dowd.
If he basically took a 2 by 4 to everyone -- male or female -- fine. That's his style. But when he just does it to women, when he does it with relish and zeal?
Yeah, Bob's a sexist pig.
As I said earlier this week, Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) offered the best perspective on Nancy Pelosi this week so go read that.
[Note, I fixed typos. And they were mine. I didn't dictate this, I typed it poorly.]
xxx
