God Damn It David Brooks! Feminism Is NOT a Pick-up Line!
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I love David Brooks! and have no time for Chris Matthews, but this morning both men are in the same sexual-politics dungeon.
Neither guy believes that women have any place in American politics, based on their vocabularies. If I were a boycotting woman, I would shut them both out of my ears.
Unfortunately, Brooks makes too much sense and must be spared. For a moderate Democrat, these words may seem contradictory, but yes — I listen to Brooks, not Matthews.
Hearing and reading these guys, only one pronoun exists in their vocabs: and it is ‘he’. The word ‘she’ doesn’t stack up in their vision of American politics, based on their own words.
The truth hurts, but I’m facing it. 50 years after women marched all over America, I read in today’s David Brooks NYTimes column ‘The Perot Option’:
There is a specter haunting America: the specter of a saner, updated version of Ross Perot. He is lurking out there, ready to ride the free-floating anger and distrust of Washington. He is out there now in one of his homes or private jets, getting madder by the day. He is large of ego, full of money and cranky in mien.
When he enters the arena, he’ll say that Washingtonians, all of them, are a bunch of failures. Over the past five years, Washington has tried to reform Social Security, immigration, health care and energy policy. All of these efforts have either failed or are close to failure — thousands of people working millions of hours and in all likelihood producing nothing.
He’ll point out that Washingtonians, all of them, breed selfishness. Republicans refuse to accept tax increases. Democrats reject spending cuts. They’ve put the country on a highway to a fiscal crisis, and there are no exit ramps.
When he comes, he’ll present himself warts and all. Yes, I’m an obnoxious S.O.B., he’ll say. But you need me right now. Yes, I am a blank slate, but people are so desperate that they’re voting for blank slates. When he comes — this billionaire Simon Cowell, this political Bobby Knight — he will change the political landscape, at least for a time.
I simply cannot imagine that in 2010, I am hearing and listening to this crap from any top pundit on TV and reading it in the NYTimes. These are fighting words, coming from a woman who likes men.
Sarah Palin exists and so does Hillary Clinton. All through the pages of Anne of Carversville, I berate American women for not understanding just how behind the curve we are, compared to women in other countries.
Today, I rest my case — in furor. Can you imagine this essay being published in Germany?
I’m not some man-hating bitch. I adore men, openly writing that many of them don’t get a fair shake from American women. But I will not keep silent on this inexcusable lack of the pronoun ‘she’ in an essay about what’s wrong with America and the person who can save us.
David Brooks, I value you as a progressive man of thought, a person who can sit at a table and have an intelligent conversation with people who oppose your views. For once, people aren’t screaming at each other, in an effort to drown out the other party, when you are at the table.
Do you honestly believe that women have no place as leaders in American politics, a country already ABSYMALLY behind the rest of the world in electing women to political office?
Reading your words, you leave me with no other conclusion.
‘I’m mad as hell, David, Chris and every other political, TV, or business leader who appears on TV and never once uses the pronoun ‘she’ in your speeches and comments. What an absurb comment to be making in 2010.
Trust me, change is possible. Bill Gates does not appear before the world with a single pronoun ‘he’ in his pocket. If Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and a host of other good guys can change their vocabs, so can you.
I’m not going to take this pronoun nonsense anymore David and Chris. ‘She’ exists. The word ‘woman’ exists. All the great thinkers in today’s world say the future of the planet depends on unheashing ‘her’.
Going forward, I will document your progress on my own columns. After 50 years of thinking change has come to America for women, enough is enough. As of today, your pronouns are on record guys.
Forget the ‘overly sensitive’ comments. With 16 percent of our gridlocked Congressional seats occupied by men, I won’t accept the suggestion that I’m being overly sensitive over your pronouns. Science is on my side, when it comes to the power of words.
Your column ‘The Perot Option’ offers NO inspiration to American women to get involved in fixing America, David. Therefore, I can only assume that you see us being good little girls, while you guys fix the major mess that America is today, because men created it.
I don’t believe in blame games, but for the record — men created this mess called America, and I don’t believe that men can fix it alone. Third-wave feminists who say that gender doesn’t matter in politics and business are wrong.
Women of America must come forward and get in our political ballgame or for certain, America will be an also-ran in the 21st century.
We’re well on the road to secondary-nation status today, thanks to men. Sorry for the gender-based lecture, David, but you really provoked me. Chris Matthews is a hopeless cause. You, David, require fixing. Anne
Photo credits: Feminism photo: Peter John Chen
