April 20, 2014

Inane War-on-Women headlines of the day.

From The Washington Post:

1. "75 years after ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ we need Ma Joad in the White House." The author, an English professor named Susan Shillinglaw, expresses enthusiasm for Ma Joad's threats of violence — that she’ll "knock you belly-up with a bucket" or "slap ya with a stick a stove wood" when you're sleeping or have your back turned. Domestic violence is such a thrill when it's a woman hitting a man, I guess. Shillinglaw also admires the rabid totalitarian spirit: "She would fire up the country with collective energy, too. 'Maybe if we was all mad in the same way.'" A demagogue would be great... if she's a female demagogue.

2. "Why we root for Chelsea Clinton." This one is just egging you on to say I don't root for Chelsea Clinton. Watch out. It's a trap. Don't react by attacking Chelsea. That's what they want you to do, and when you do that, you're giving them a target in the war. You've got to outsmart the enemy... and by enemy, I mean devious liberal politicos who are propagating the meme that conservatives want to hurt women (i.e., they are at war against women). So I would recommend responding to this article by latching onto that word "root." If "we" are "rooting" for someone, then "we" are cast as cheerleaders. Cheerleaders???!!!! Sexist stereotype! I am not a cheerleader looking on while someone else plays and scores. I am the active participant! How dare you consign me to the sidelines, with pom-poms, hopping around girlishly, admiring somebody else! See? That's how you do it.

65 comments:

MayBee said...

Note to "they" : Stop trying to make Chelsea happen.

Oso Negro said...

The only way that Chelsea Clinton could possibly become interesting to me would be if she were to denounce her parents in the style of Pavel Morozov.

Tank said...

The Clinton story is mostly about how, despite being kind of a homely kid, and the various attacks or jokes people made about her, she seems to have turned out ok and happy. I'm in sympathy with this. I think, generally, politicians kids should be off limits. She does seem to have turned out ok, living a typical elite New York kind of life (some of which, at a lower level, I live).

If she enters politics, and is like her parents, then I'll go after her (I know she supported her Mom; should I attack her for supporting her Mom? - No.).

mezzrow said...

Good post, Ann. More of this.

tim maguire said...

Activism is not a cause, it is a mindset. No complaint is too petty, just ratchet up the adjectives as needed.

Marc in Eugene said...

Saw the Ma Joad essay and immediately thought, Mrs Clinton! But then I didn't see you or anybody else making that connection and began to suspect that I had lost myself in my rightist paranoia at last.

Happy Easter!

Gahrie said...

You've got to outsmart the enemy... and by enemy, I mean devious liberal politicos who are propagating the meme that conservatives want to hurt women

Why?

Weren't you ever taught two wrongs don't make a right?

why not call the Left on their behavior and force them to behave properly?

Anonymous said...

Belligerent Drunk Stand-up Comic says:

So Chelsea Clinton is going to have a baby, saw it in the news, saw it in the news (sips drink). Good kid, I hope the best for her and her child, I really do. Amazing that Chelsea could come out of everything with a head on her shoulders. I mean, when both the "Chelsea has Two Mommies" AND "Daddy has One Hundred Girlfriends" books are on your mental shelf, well... (sips drink) ...the only thing that could make it worse is the children's book "Uncle Teddy Kennedy Touched Me There" ...stop with the groaning, just stop: at least Teddy isn't around to drive the kid home from soccer practice...

(sips drink)

Now, it's gonna be tough, gonna be tough. For instance: Auntie Monica. (sips drink) Auntie Monica,showing up unannounced, with the cutest little blue dress for the child to wear, it's gonna get old...

(sips drink)

And the poor kid. I mean, when they ask 'what do you want to be when you grow up' anything less than 'President' is gonna be a disappointment, a big disappointment. (sips drink) "Brain surgeon? Really, Honey? Is that the best you think you can do? Why not just say Garbage Man?" (sips drink) And pity the school-teacher who has to teach the child what the meaning of 'is' is...

Thank you, you've been a peach...

Guildofcannonballs said...

Forget the idea of outsmarting anyone. Think about how to fight. Scare them, don't explain or show them.

Lefties take away guns and women get raped. The racist patriarchy doesn't care enough about women, or think they are competent enough to defend themselves, to allow them the freedom to defend themselves even though it is written in the constitution.

No numbers! Only stories of might and fright with the Leftists causing the pain and GOP alleviating it with liberty.

This is easy to do as Democratics have shown recently and the GOP will adapt and become, within three years, a permanent ruling party.

MayBee said...

And no, fans root. Cheerleaders cheer and ask others to root.

People seem pretty happy to simply ignore Chelsea Clinton which is the best way to continue. Let the Clinton's spend their money on Chelsea PR, as they did with Chelsea's wedding. They simply haven't been able to turn her into Kate Middleton.

George M. Spencer said...

For all we know, Ma Joad made a few thin dimes letting men shake down her peaches tree.

We know as much as about her as we do about Chelsea.

"Nothing is more deceiving that a beautiful surface," wrote Tolstoy. And, thus, we have utter frauds like Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley," a work of near total fiction that he foisted as true-to-life reporting.

Anonymous said...

Did someone say cheerleaders?

Ann Althouse said...

@Maybee You're asserting that there is an important distinction between "root" and "cheer"? Any authority for that... authority sufficient not just for your preference as you write but to say "no" to me and to purport to correct?

The OED defines the American slang "root" to mean "To cheer for or lend support to a person or group, esp. a sports team; to wish for a person or group's success in a particular endeavour."

In Australian and New Zealand slang "root" means: "To have sexual intercourse with (a person). Also intr.: to engage in sexual intercourse."

1922 [implied in: J. Joyce Ulysses iii. 719   All the poking and rooting and ploughing he had up in me. (at rooting n.2 3)]....
1966   P. White Solid Mandala 185   We'll root together so good you'll shoot out the other side of Christmas....
1993   M. Gee Going West (1994) 4   A Seddon Tech boy rooted his sheila and they both had their pants pulled up and were sitting as though nothing had happened by the time the train came out the other end.

Ann Althouse said...

"Weren't you ever taught two wrongs don't make a right?"

Weren't you ever taught about sarcasm and parody?

Gahrie said...

I have more faith that the MSM will be responsible in their coverage of Chelsea's baby than I do in Hillary not to use the baby for political purposes.

Gahrie said...

Weren't you ever taught about sarcasm and parody?

Yes....but in this case you reward the behavior that you are supposedly being sarcastic about or parodying.

Your response to the War on Women meme has been to demand that Republicans change their behavior and not that Democrats and their allies stop misbehaving.

mesquito said...

I suspect Ma Joad was wrong on gay marriage.

Anonymous said...

Surely the proper feminist-scold response to Alyssa Rosenberg is that she's making a cheerleader-- i.e., someone who doesn't just root, but exhorts others to root-- of herself?

What's Ma Joad doing with a princess for a daughter anyway?

Anonymous said...

Of COURSE conservatives don't really want to hurt women. That is why they required that lube be used when a woman is forced by law to have a steel wand stuck up her vagina.

(They DID mandate the lube as well, didn't they?)

Big Mike said...

Okay, maybe I'm just dense ("Maybe"? Meade and Althouse shout in unison) but ordinary women get pregnant and have kids every day. Chelsea is wealthy, her parents and husband's parents are well-connected. Ergo she'll have access to the best medical support a pregnant woman can have. Is there a reason why this would be a problem pregnancy?

If I wanted to be snarky -- and I don't! -- I might point out that graduating from college, marrying, and getting pregnant are so far the only three accomplishments in this young woman's life. So I'm rooting for her to deliver her baby successfully, which would give her a fourth.

rhhardin said...

What's wrong with cheerleaders.

I imagine Chelsea got the best gold-digger she could get.

Illuninati said...

When is a fabulously rich woman whose parents went into office poor and emerged among the most wealthy people in the country every woman? That is only true in the fevered leftie mind where regular people have no existence of their own but exist only because they are acknowledged by the ruler. That is why enemies of Mao (or Stalin) were automatically enemies of the people. The leftie despot (like absolute monarchs in the past)is the people (l'état, c'est moi). Therefore, in leftie thinking attacks on Chelsea who is part of the ruling class is an attack on all women.

John henry said...

Why did I never think of the Ma Joad analogy? (Smacking myself hard in the head)

It is perfect. Hilary Clinton is Ma Joad.

Even looks a lot like her. See this pic of Jane Darwell in the movie Grapes of Wrath.

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.607995037963193630&w=165&h=180&c=7&rs=1&pid=1.7

Yes, that is the meme Hilary wants to go with for 2016.

VOTE FOR MA JOAD!!!

(or you'll be sorry)

John Henry

Anonymous said...

What's sad is how ideologues and the little fiefdoms that have grown up in humanities departments detract from what i think ought to be a vital part of a serious education.

You just notice 'em more with a progressive admin in office.

**it'd be nice to think many in the media wouldn't create such incentives for our politics to be a celebrified popularity contest.

Ann Althouse said...

"I suspect Ma Joad was wrong on gay marriage."

They say Ma Joe'd but maybe she Joanned.

JHapp said...

Chelsea starting a family is the one of the best things that could have happened for the humane race, including republicans.

Anonymous said...

Big Mike said...
only three accomplishments in this young woman's life. So I'm rooting for her to deliver her baby successfully, which would give her a fourth.


getting pregnant isn't particularly hard for a woman if she gets enough doses of sperm...

hardly an accomplishment...

Sella Turcica said...

I read the article about Ma Joad, and the comments as well, and found what I was looking for:

What a great essay! I hope Hillary Clinton reads it. She is the nearest thing to a Ma Joad in the White House we have, and I believe she has Ma Joad's grit, guts, sensitivity, and strength. Hillary is going to need it.

Or if that doesn't work out, an authentic Okie: Liz Warren

Wince said...

Ma articulates this best, perhaps, when she wordlessly directs her daughter to breast-feed the starving man in Chapter 30.

Is the secret symbolism here that, in the aftermath of her pregnancy, the "99%" get to suck on Chelsea's tit at Hillary's direction if she's elected president?

somefeller said...

Just popping in before Easter brunch. I see some of the usual suspects are all stirred up about a Clinton again. How sad, but not all of the permanent things are happy ones. Anyway, happy Easter!

Saint Croix said...

LOL, brilliant Ann. I love this blog, it's so fun.

William said...

My understanding is that the Okies who migrated west during the Great Depression worked hard and prospered. They were, in many cases, the growers who Cesar Chavez organized against during his moment of glamorous oppression......It is ennobling to struggle against adversity, but, if you should actually prevail, then you're a smug bourgeoise and fuck you. Exemptions are given to those who use their wealth in support of Democratic causes.

Fen said...

The only that interests me about the Clinton pregnancy is how the Left gushes over it.

They really are Tories.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Oso Negro, you have to be very well read indeed to know of Pavel Morozov.

Anonymous said...

Intrigued as I am by Ma's call for a more regressive tax code (“If you’re in trouble or hurt or need — go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help — the only ones”), I wonder how she'd go about applying the concept of a minimum wage to hedge-fund managers. Would it involve covering their capital losses for them?

clarice said...

Some royal baby. One grandfather was impeached; the other served prison time for major fraud; one grand mother is under investigation for her role in Benghazi; the other for misusing charitable funds on herself. Reminds me of a filthy joke about a pre-Castro Havana nightclub act which billed itself as "The Aristocrats".

Anonymous said...

Hogs root

n.n said...

It is indeed a momentous occasion. One worth cheering or rooting for. Another child escapes planned parenthood. It's a small step for women. A giant leap for humanity.

Limited Blogger said...

I'm "rooting" for her fetus! Is it due this side of Christmas?

ken in tx said...

Will Rogers is supposed to have said that when the Okies left Oklahoma for California, it raised the average IQ of both states.

somercet said...

#2 Althouse is correct: this article may have well been written by "a Democratic operative with a by-line." Her proposed counter-jab is good, too.

Swifty Quick said...

Two things about the Clintons. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but it never stops them from trying. And, no matter what they do or where they go, a piece Dogpatch always goes with them.

So, while the Republicans are all in disarray trying to find the perfect candidate who appeals equally to country-clubbers and tea-partiers alike, a return of the Clintons might have some entertainment value.

Valentine Smith said...

All women marry some isotope of daddy (real or imagined). It'll be interesting to see if Mister Chelsea can stay out of prison.

Michael said...

I don't root for Chelsea Clinton. She seems a well-adjusted child of a broken marriage, like millions out there, and I wish her a happy normal life that does not involve further dynastic aspirations for the Clinton family of Hopeaquiddick. Beyond that, I do not care any more than I do about millions of other young people I don't know personally.

n.n said...

Zeb Quinn:

Bill, not Hillary. To the "good" old days when the People could mock their representatives and not be called racist or sexist. Well, Bill, or any Republican, male or female, black or white, will do.

Nate Whilk said...

Althouse summarized the article: "A demagogue would be great... if she's a female demagogue."

And a Democrat.

Orwell, "Notes on Nationalism": "All in all it is difficult not to feel that pacifism, as it appears among a section of the intelligentsia, is secretly inspired by an admiration for power and successful cruelty."

It seems to have spread to most leftists.

Anonymous said...

The Chelsea story is that a liberal white woman can get married and have a child.

Gospace said...

"The Clinton story is mostly about how, despite being kind of a homely kid, and the various attacks or jokes people made about her, she seems to have turned out ok and happy. I'm in sympathy with this"

If a lie gets repeated often enough, people believe it. What attacks? What jokes? Every misstep of the Bush twins was well covered in American newspapers. Chelsea drunk in public well covered only in the British press. If you search the internet you can find stories of misbehaving Democrats and Democrat politicians children on sites similar to freerepublic, until they become really public and well known.

Sarah Palin's kids lives are much more well documented then Chelsea's. In the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN/NBC/ABC/CBS, and so on. All to PREVENT her from getting anywhere near the Oval Office.

MayBee said...

"@Maybee You're asserting that there is an important distinction between "root" and "cheer"? Any authority for that... authority sufficient not just for your preference as you write but to say "no" to me and to purport to correct?"

Is there some authority besides your opinion in saying,"that's how you do it"?

I think you are wrong, because rooting (lending support to) does not imply a gender and does not make one a cheerleader. I disagree with the idea that not rooting for Chelsea is attacking her. I disagree with your take on the War on Women. And I disagree that you have any better insight into it than anyone else.

That's why I say no. From the same authority you have to expound on your thoughts.

somefeller said...

Back from brunch and I see those who get stirred up by a Clinton are still stirred up. I guess it's like hunting Easter eggs for some. Please continue.

MayBee said...

(Alternate-world Althouse, in which a a Republican male actually did respond this way:)

Why do Republican men need to bring up cheerleaders just because a woman is being discussed? Can't righties think of women and fertility without sexualizing them? Don't they know how disgusting they sound, trying to squish a president's daughter into short shorts and go go boots so they can leer at her like drunken sports fans?

This is why the GOP loses the War on Women. They can't help but sound like they see women as entertainment for their male events. Smart men should just shut up about Chelsea Clinton, and cheerleaders, and smart republicans should disavow these pigs.

I'm just trying to help.

Skeptical Voter said...

If the shoe fits (female Democrat demagogue) wear it!

And boy can Hillary fill those shoes!

richard mcenroe said...

We could give Chelsea the same treatment the Palin kids got, or Bush's daughters... but I'm just not that misogynistic.

Paco Wové said...

Creepy how many thirst for a dictator to give the people "justice", good and hard. Especially those people. The bastards.

chillblaine said...

I can't say whether I root for Chelsea, because it's obvious that Marc has already done that deed. He can proudly wear the ceremonial "Mr. Plow" insignia at the next lodge meeting.

I do think she is adorable, with her hay-colored hair and blue eyes. Who would not wish for her a healthy pregnancy and baby? My only advice for her would be to avoid skin-to-skin contact with Cecile Richards until after the midterms.

Jason said...

Chelsea is on the cover of Fast Company Magazine this month. The cover refers to her "wealth, power and her plan to change the world."

In other words, she is now fair game.

Gabriel said...

I have nothing against Chelsea Clinton, but I would point out that she is now 34 years old--an adult woman making her own choices.

Criticizing her for them is perfectly fair, and still would be even if open season had not been declared on Sarah Palin's children while they still were children.

Micha Elyi said...

Joads ruined California.

Micha Elyi said...

Joads ruined California. They and their spawn are the seeds of what became the Democrat machine in California and its quasi-socialist state.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I will buy 3 tickets, at about $32 each including the &^%&%& fees, to anyone wishing to see Steel Panther in Denver May 7th.

They are too hardcore, meaning actually hardcore, WITHOUT ITALICS NEITHER, for most but the brain happy

I hope they fade out because everyone is too productive and consumed with spirituality, and here I differ with Ann Barnhardt yet so be it.

tim in vermont said...

I have always kind of liked Chelsea Clinton since she stuck up for America in her classes at Oxford. I don't have a problem with her, I just can't get over how obsessed the press is with her baby, as if she were some kind of royalty.

Tank said...

@Harold

If you missed all the jokes about Chelsea's looks, you weren't paying attention. There were plenty in both conservative and mainstream circles.

The fact that the Bush twins and Palin's kids were covered is more of the same stuff that I don't approve of. I'm nonpartisan on this. Generally, leave the kids out of it.

Laura said...

"Do you think Hillary and Chelsea are fighting to liberate nannies and daycare workers from the drudgery of wiping the bottoms of other women’s children?" -- Betty Butter, BlurBrain.com

Though perhaps putting nannies and babysitters on the State of Arkansas payroll does look better on a resume...

Big Mike said...

The cover refers to her "wealth, power and her plan to change the world." (emphasis mine)

I have been reading about the deep-felt desire of starry-eyed young men and women to "change the world" for decades already. How about a plan to make the world a better place? It's not very hard to change the world for the worse, but truly hard work to make it a better place for ...

That's the problem, isn't it? Does making it a better place for children make it a worse place for adults? Or for retired people?

In my opinion we've had five years and three months of continuous change, and outside of wealthy donors to the Democrats I'm hard-pressed to know for whom the world has changed in a net positive direction.

Jason said...

Welfare queens.