The First Lady recently weighed in on the faltering support for Supreme
Court nominee Harriet Miers. Asked on NBC's Today show if sexism might
be at the root of the criticisms of Miers' legal qualifications, Mrs.
Bush coyly replied, "I think that's possible."
Excuse me, but somehow that remark struck a nerve. Because every time a
woman hits a hiccup in the long march for female emancipation, it seems
that someone trots out the specter of knuckle-dragging males trying to
send their womenfolk back to the Cuisinart.
If male sexism is rampant throughout the hinterlands, then why did the
CWA -- the Concerned Women for America -- come out
expressing
wonderment
that a woman who has never written a single article on constitutional
law is now being considered for the high court?
Are the CWA members
male cross-dressers who have failed to connect with their inner
feminine?
But now that Laura Bush has raised the issue of sexism, maybe it's time
to turn the spotlight in the other direction.
Don't get me wrong, Mrs. Bush. I have a great love for books and a high
regard for teachers and librarians.
But during last year's Presidential campaign, you seemed to revel in
jokes at your husband's expense. Remember that story about George
stretching out his feet on the living room table, and Barbara ordered
him to put them down? That one brought down the house -- but somehow I
can't imagine Bill regaling audiences about the time he ordered Hillary
to remove her panty-house from the shower stall.
And then at last April's White House Correspondents' Dinner, it seems
you ordered the Commander-in-Chief to sit down so you could crack crude
jokes about you and other well-appointed ladies waving greenbacks at
male strippers.
Sexist? Probably not, but certainly in bad taste.
Then there were your high-profile efforts to promote the rights of women
in Afghanistan. Of course that's important and good. But when you paid
that visit to the Women's Teacher Training Institute in Kabul, were you
mindful of the arrests, torture, and executions that the Taliban had
visited on many thousands of innocent civilian men?
Somehow it doesn't make sense to call attention to the right of girls to
get an education, but ignore the right of defenseless men to not be
pulled out of their homes in the middle of the night, never to be heard
from again.
This past July you gave a
speech in South Africa that decried violence
against women. But what about violence
against men? Surely one of your advisors warned you that the domestic
violence issue has
become
distorted by the rad-fems whose aim is to
convince women that they live under the constant threat of being
brutalized by their husbands and boyfriends.
Then there's your gender health initiative.
As you know, the health of men is in pretty sad shape these days. Men
die an average of five years before women. As a result, elderly widows
soon end up in a nursing home, left to wonder how things might have
turned out differently.
When they find out those facts, most women I know say, "What can I do to
improve the health of men, and especially the men in my life?"
But instead, you opted to promote your
Women'
s Health and Wellness
Initiative.
Even more mind-boggling is your endorsement of the
Heart
Truth, the
women's heart disease awareness program that features fashion queens in
showy red dresses.
It's well-known that men have a far
higher risk of dying from heart
disease than women. Just
last week I heard about a local man - a husband, a breadwinner, and
father of three -- in his 40s who just had a triple coronary bypass
operation.
But you don't hear about women that age with life-threatening heart
disease. That's because heart disease is a disease that affects older
women.
Although no doubt well-intentioned, your women's health program carries
a message that is demeaning to fair-minded men and women alike: men's
medical necessities command less social priority than women's fashion
statements.
Maybe your flirtation with radical feminism wouldn't be so bad, Mrs.
Bush, except for the fact that you showcase these programs as examples
of Enlightened Womanhood. Caring and intelligent women everywhere happen
to think otherwise.
