Althouse: Tired of pink men.

January 6, 2009

Tired of pink men.

"I am so tired of pink men bombing brown children and rationalizing it as fighting terrorism. I am so tired of pink men telling women (of all colors) what to do with their wombs--which connect with their brains--in case you forgot. I am so tired of pink men telling us we should stay in Iraq for generations. I am so tired of pink men buying bombs and cheating schools. I am so tired of pink men having wives who stand behind them and nod sagely on television. I am so tired of pink men expecting that someone--a brown, black, yellow or white woman--will trail behind them changing light bulbs, taking out garbage, washing laundry, keeping food in the house, taking care of kids of all ages, of parents of all ages. I am so tired of pink men whose wives double or triple the family income thinking they can spend it without doing a damn thing at home. I am so tired of pink men spouting nonsense on TV. I am so tired of pink men arguing, blathering, bloviating, predicting the future--usually wrongly--and telling women to shut up. I am so sick of hearing that another pink man has dropped his children out a window, off a bridge or killed his pregnant wife or killed his unpregnant wife because he was infatuated with another pregnant woman. I am so sick of pink men making war and talking about peace. I am so sick of pink men appointing their mediocre cronies to judgeships, to political advisors, to cushy jobs, to columns in the paper, to multimillion-dollar posts as CEOS or actors (while the actresses make less) or producers or writers or newsreaders or talk show bloviators or supposedly sage counselors at law. I am so tired of pink men."

That's Erica Jong, in one of "The 10 Worst Quotes From The Huffington Post For 2008."

Pink men? Reminds me of this:

I am so sick of pink men appointing their mediocre cronies to judgeships, to political advisors, to cushy jobs.... Well, how do you like Barack Obama appointing Leon Panetta to run the C.I.A.? How pink/unpink/mediocre/unmediocre is that?

63 comments:

Simon said...: If she's serious, Jong must spend every day in a kind of constant torment, surrounded by things that tire and frustrate her. See, there's a silver lining to every cloud.; 1/6/09, 7:36 AM
Unknown said...: Well, of course, Obama's not pink. So all of that's OK now.; 1/6/09, 7:40 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I wonder if Ms. Jang was tired of black men hacking to pieces 800,000other black folk in Rwanda? Or the black men killing 2-3 million other black folk in the Congo? Or Those yellow men killing a bunch of other yellow folk in Myannmar? Or those brown Muslim men who hang other brown Muslim men who are gay, or stone brown Muslim women who have sex outside of marriage?

What a tool.; 1/6/09, 7:42 AM
Expat(ish) said...: If she only knew how tired pink men were of being scolded by EVERYONE for EVERYTHING.

The only thing worse than being a pink man is being a straight pink man. Perhaps it is worse being a straight Jewish pink man.

I know, how about we have a day without pink men here in the US?

-XC; 1/6/09, 7:45 AM
KCFleming said...: I'm tired of pink men who made daughters that are nothing but selfish brats, who marry four times, who are 9/11 troofers, who obsessed that Obama might lose, causing her a "paralyzing terror, an anxious fever that keeps you awake at night", believing that it would "spark the second American Civil War" where "blood will run in the streets", who wrote only one book of any repute that is now a mere curio on a shelf (but never re-read), who still cannot write, if this HuffPo piece is any example.; 1/6/09, 7:52 AM
KCFleming said...: I prefer the little pink sock.; 1/6/09, 8:00 AM
Meade said...: Hey, even Pink is tired of pink.; 1/6/09, 8:07 AM
Henry said...: I didn't know Pink had so many men.

* * *

As for Leon Panetta, I think it's a brilliant move on Obama's part. He took a look at one of the most disfunctional organizations in government and instead of appointing any kind of easily co-opted intelligence professional, he put in a junkyard dog.

It's similar to the Rahm Emanuel appointment. Obama has Emanuel guarding his front. With Panetta he has someone watching his back.; 1/6/09, 8:16 AM
Tibore said...: Erica Jong's a truther??

Christ... and here I was thinking my opinion of her could get any lower...; 1/6/09, 8:17 AM
Amexpat said...: ...Then she says, "you don't read women authors, do you?"
Least that's what I think I hear her say,
"Well", I say, "how would you know and what would it matter anyway?"

"Well", she says, "you just don't seem like you do!"
I said, "you're way wrong."
She says, "which ones have you read then?" I say, "I read Erica Jong!"
She goes away for a minute and I slide up out of my chair
I step outside back to the busy street, but nobody's going anywhere; 1/6/09, 8:20 AM
bearbee said...: Ereeka you've been pink'd; 1/6/09, 8:29 AM
Balfegor said...: I am so sick of pink men appointing their mediocre cronies to judgeships, to political advisors, to cushy jobs.... Well, how do you like Barack Obama appointing Leon Panetta to run the C.I.A.? How pink/unpink/mediocre/unmediocre is that?

Well, be fair -- Panetta isn't Obama's crony. Obama wasn't important enough to have real cronies until about a year ago -- instead, he had friends, mentors, associates, and colleagues. He was more cron-ee than cron-or. Panetta, like most members of the emerging Obama administration, is Clinton's crony. Not to worry, though -- in four years, Obama will have plenty of cronies of his own.; 1/6/09, 8:40 AM
knox said...: I just went over to the PuffHo to try to find an essay by Paul Reiser that has to rank among the worst... of all time, not this year. I was looking for a good quote to pull from it but the whole damn thing was so stupid I couldn't choose. If anyone's interested.; 1/6/09, 8:41 AM
knox said...: Downloaded Ricky Gervais' latest yesterday, can't wait to start listening!; 1/6/09, 8:42 AM
knox said...: (I don't twitter, so I have to record it somewhere); 1/6/09, 8:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Erica Jong's self-righteousness, as if either minorities or women were inherently superior to white men in all times and at all places, manages to be simultaneously disgusting and terrifying.

That's no mean feat. So apparently she has some skill, after all.; 1/6/09, 8:47 AM
john said...: Yes, but can she belt it out like Madeline?; 1/6/09, 8:48 AM
Anonymous said...: This quote from Naomi Emery re: the Left's reaction to Sarah Palin (not pink men) applies nicely here:

"Somehow, every element of her life--the dual offense of being a beauty-queen and hunter; the Down syndrome baby who wasn't aborted; the teenage daughter about to get married, whose baby also wasn't aborted; the non-metrosexual husband working the nightshift; the very fact of five children--touched a nerve on the liberal template, and sent the whole beast into convulsions, opening an intriguing and somewhat frightening window onto the turbulent id of the left."

- Naomi Emery on the "Palin Effect"; 1/6/09, 8:50 AM
Darcy said...: Hee, Paul S. I couldn't think of anything nice to say about this woman. Thanks for doing that for me. Sort of.; 1/6/09, 8:53 AM
Joan said...: I must be dense, because I don't understand why, in Jong's world, men are pink but women are black, brown, yellow, or white. What about the reddish Native Americans, or are they lumped in with the brown people now?

I thought we were all supposed to be colorblind by now.; 1/6/09, 8:54 AM
john said...: Pink men dropping children out of windows?

Hmm .... Oh, I get it! - it's Michael Jackson.; 1/6/09, 8:59 AM
Richard Fagin said...: Well, Expat(ish), I can tell you from personal experience why Prof. Althouse's ex-husband may have decided to marry outside his religion. Erica's parents' generation created a whole generation of Ericas. They are fundamentally impossible to live with if you're an ordrinay, sane pink guy, even (or especially) a Jewish one.

And to think that freakin b may be remotely related to me by the Weisman tree. Ugh!!!!; 1/6/09, 9:03 AM
Meade said...: Good get, Sheepman. Dylan has been mocking the loony Left for decades. It's amusing to observe how so few of them get him while so many still think he is their spokesman -- for them and their one-wheel-in-the-ditch doctrinaire idiocy.; 1/6/09, 9:10 AM
rhhardin said...: The Crayola ``Indian Red'' is not for coloring the faces of Indians.; 1/6/09, 9:24 AM
Host with the Most said...: Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles:

"Let's face it. I'm Tired!"; 1/6/09, 9:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Her voice was so attractive that Pongo was compelled to slew round and take another look at her. Her eyes, he says, were shining like twin stars and there was a sort of Soul's Awakening expression on her face, and what the dickens there was in a pink chap like the pink chap, who even as pink chaps go wasn't much of a pink chap, to make her look like that, was frankly, Pongo says, more than he could understand. -- P.G. Wodehouse, "Uncle Fred Flits By" (1935); 1/6/09, 9:47 AM
knox said...: Hey, I got a Wodehouse anthology for Christmas! Can't wait to read it.

/twitter; 1/6/09, 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...: It isn't the pink men Jong needs to fear. It is the blue men. Quiet, bloody, violent, uncaring, hypermasculine.; 1/6/09, 10:06 AM
Will said...: Joan, the problem is that if you're colorblind, you can't whip yourself into a frenzy celebrating "diversity." Colorblindness is all about what we have in common, Jong's rant is all about highlighting racial and ethnic differences.; 1/6/09, 10:23 AM
William said...: The gauntlet has been thrown down. Naomi Wolf only finished third, but she is young and sharpening her pencil as we speak....Some time back I read Fear of Flying. I sympathized with Erica's quest to find an orgasm that matched the grandeur of her ego. However, it must be observed that self aggrandizing sex happens mostly in pink societies. Sadly, there were no feminists of Erica's caliber in Iraq to explain how Uday's and Offal's rape rooms were a liberating experience for brown women.; 1/6/09, 10:25 AM
chickelit said...: Korean women have a racial slur for western men that goes something like "hairy-pink-monkey-smells-like milk". Oh well, somebody had to fight for their freedom of expression.; 1/6/09, 10:36 AM
Patm said...: I'm so tired of pink women with heads full of Mush from 1972.; 1/6/09, 10:36 AM
Simon said...: chickenlittle said...
"Korean women have a racial slur for western men"

Women in Korea, that is, or ethnically korean-American women?; 1/6/09, 10:37 AM
chickelit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/6/09, 10:41 AM
MnMark said...: Interesting how in the past liberals were all "we just want race and gender not to matter" and "judge people on character, not color of skin [or gender]" and now that they have that, liberals like Jong are all "I despise white men", which shows that it was never about making race and gender not matter. It was about THEIR race or gender gaining control.

So if it's all about power, and the talk about equality was really just a tactic used to guilt white men into giving up some power, then the hell with them - I'll go ahead and be racist and sexist too and say I want to see white men like myself continue to run things.

Anyway, I wish for Jong that she may find herself living in some country where there are no pink men, only brown, yellow, or red men and their brown, yellow, or red women. Oh how I wish that, for her to see how pink women are treated in a society run by someone other than pink men.; 1/6/09, 10:44 AM
Expat(ish) said...: @chickenlittle: awesome!

I need me some racial slurs - whitey really doesn't have much sting, if it ever did. Plus it contravenes the PhD meme that "white is the default color or power".

The pink/milk/monkey thing is great though.

-XC; 1/6/09, 10:44 AM
chickelit said...: @Simon: My source said the former. I don't know any of the latter.; 1/6/09, 10:45 AM
Simon said...: @chickenlittle - well, then I guess we'll pull all of our "hairy-pink-monkey-smells-like milk" men in the US Armed Forces out of Korea and wish them luck with the involuntary reunification. Ingrates.; 1/6/09, 10:52 AM
amba said...: It's all that toxic pinkness. Pink poisoning. Oh, plus the testosterone.; 1/6/09, 10:57 AM
amba said...: So has Erica divorced her latest pink man???; 1/6/09, 10:59 AM
Pastafarian said...: Two questions:

1) Why does she use pink to refer to white men, when she uses white to refer to white women? Is it some sort of homophobic feminization?

2) Do we pink men really smell like milk? I've heard that we smell like a wet chicken; milk doesn't seem nearly as bad, but the two smell nothing alike to me. Seriously, non-pink commenters -- be brutally honest here. Do I stink?; 1/6/09, 11:08 AM
KCFleming said...: So has Erica divorced her latest pink man???
For a Jew to speak as Jong does, in a tirade reminiscent of the worst fascist filth from the 1920s and 30s, blaming the evil other for all of life's illnesses and tragedies -every one, in fact- is the most shockingly unaware thing I have ever read. I half-expected her to ask the pink men to wear an identifying star so others know to avoid the vermin.

It was pink men that started this goddamned country, the nation you hate but never seem to leave.
It was pink men that saved the world from Hitler and from Stalin.
It was pink men that ran up the Twin Towers, who died trying to save all those many colors from many nations because that's what pink men do.
It was pink men who built the roads and bridges, flew the planes she feared, shot and got shot at in liberating the brown women and men in Kuwait and then Iraq, and rousted that murderous sonofabitch Saddam, and gave him to the brown men to hang.

More liberal fascism, every damed day.
Fuck you, Ms. Jong.; 1/6/09, 11:15 AM
TMink said...: I am so tired of pink women aborting babies and rationalizing it as free choice. I am so tired of pink women telling men (of all colors) what to say with their mouths--which connect with their brains--in case she forgot. I am so tired of pink women telling us we should not act like men. I am so tired of pink women writing emotional mush and attacking anyone who criticizes it as such.

I could go on, but you get the idea. For the record, the pink women I am discussing are a small subgroup of pink women. As a whole, I find women, pink and otherwise, to be wonderful. I even married one. 8)

Trey; 1/6/09, 11:24 AM
Balfegor said...: Korean women have a racial slur for western men that goes something like "hairy-pink-monkey-smells-like milk". Oh well, somebody had to fight for their freedom of expression.

I'm not familiar with the term. I am familiar with people complaining that Whites smell, though. I suppose it's as likely to be the milk as anything.

I'm also not aware that Americans ever fought for Koreans' freedom of expression -- South Korea was basically a dictatorship until Kim Young Sam's election. There's some fudge room with some of the transitional figures, including Noh Taewoo, but all the major presidents from Syngman Rhee until Chun Doo-hwan exercised dictatorial powers. Freedom of expression wasn't particularly protected in the past either -- I mean, the police went around cutting young mens' hair if it was too long, back in the 70's. And that's to say nothing of the bans on importation of various foreign cultural products. To the extent there has been liberalisation on these fronts, it's come largely in the last 20 years, from changes in Korean society, especially democratisation. The US generally hasn't stood in the way of these changes, but neither has it been particularly instrumental in futhering them -- as late as 1980, the US government, under the Carter administration, stood firmly on the side of dictatorship and repression in the Kwangju massacre.; 1/6/09, 11:27 AM
AllenS said...: Pastafarian--

You smell like pink monkey meat that has been soaking in milk.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.; 1/6/09, 11:31 AM
AllenS said...: Hold on a second, I just put my shoes on, and the smell went away.; 1/6/09, 11:33 AM
Balfegor said...: 2) Do we pink men really smell like milk? I've heard that we smell like a wet chicken; milk doesn't seem nearly as bad, but the two smell nothing alike to me. Seriously, non-pink commenters -- be brutally honest here. Do I stink?

I don't know you, so I can't say. Maybe you positively reek. But envisioning you (enolfactioning you?) as an average American White of average hygiene and so on, you don't stink, but you do smell noticeably different from Koreans. And Blacks smell different from Whites, Indian Indians from Blacks and Whites, etc. etc. People from different races tend to smell different, that's all. Not always -- this is just an averages thing. Might be diet, might be hygiene, and part of it is probably genetic. It doesn't really stick out in a place like the US, but it's noticeable in places like Korea or Japan which are essentially monoracial.; 1/6/09, 11:40 AM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Richard Fagin:

I once asked a couple of Jewish guys why they all married blonde gentiles, and they gave me a "you gotta be kidding" look. They then went on to explain exactly why they would never marry a Jewish girl. Harsh, harsh.

Jong wrote one barely readable book that just happened to have good timing with the haairy-legged feminist crowd, otherwise no one would have ever heard of her or care what she thinks.; 1/6/09, 11:53 AM
TitusDoeADeerAFemaleDeer said...: I don't like pink men for sex.

I like all shades of brown.; 1/6/09, 12:11 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Oh shut up and get me some coffee, Bitch.

On a lighter and far more cheerful note, but staying on the topic of firing missiles, here's Hamas launching quassams.; 1/6/09, 12:15 PM
jayne_cobb said...: Michael H:

I've got you beat as I have found men that straddle the blue/pink divide.

And if you wish to see how dangerous they are just watch them in action. (at 1:20); 1/6/09, 12:22 PM
Synova said...: Erica is a gift, isn't she?

Without her I wouldn't have the mental image of Dick Cheney decked out like Rambo with a belt fed machine gun in one hand, and bandoleers crossed over his ripped chest, standing in the city street in front of some WW2 tanks.; 1/6/09, 12:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Jayne Cobb - Yikes!

As I have been accused of being a pink man by Erica Jong, and I am Catholic, I now feel guilt about my pinkness.

But being a resident of a liberal majority state, I now also wonder about whether I am authentically pink. Am I pink enough?

It varies. I was about medium rare for a few days last summer, after painting my cottage (shorts, no shirt). Other times, I seem to be somewhere between medium well and well done. Having a mat of chest hair seems to keep me nearer the well done appearance.

How can I judge my pink authenticity?

If Erica Jong lived nearby I could stop by and have her launder a few shirts, I suppose. Or just drop in for a drive-by oppressing of one sort or another.

But being a famous author and all, she probably lives in a higher economic stratosphere than I, so oppressing her could be a real challenge. Plus, she probably has people, agents, attorneys, and such, and I don't.

I'd better get my pink on.; 1/6/09, 12:51 PM
fivewheels said...: Rodriguez's point about white people not really being white per se was somewhat blunted by the fact that, at least in the clip, Howley looks pretty danged white. It's not a criticism of any kind, as she's quite lovely in her fair-skinned way, but she really isn't too many pantones off that sheet of paper.; 1/6/09, 1:58 PM
Cedarford said...: Balfegor said...
Korean women have a racial slur for western men that goes something like "hairy-pink-monkey-smells-like milk". Oh well, somebody had to fight for their freedom of expression.

Unlike the White West, Asians...the Han, Koreans, and Yamoto...remain racially proud, and sometimes will tell you so, and all about their illustrious history.
No different than the jingoism of some Americans claiming if not for us, Brits&Italians&French would be speaking German (actually, if we never entered WWII after foot-dragging - all those countries would have ended up speaking their native languages as other Soviet satellite countries did).

Of course, such racism can be easily reciprocated. You tell the Korean racist that she smells of rotten fish, kimchi and garlic, that she has Japanese ancestry, and that Koreans are the Mortimer Snerds of Asia - unaccomplished, ignorant barbarians sandwiched between two great civilizations that all Koreans did was mindlessly ape...

***********************
Erica Jong is like Sandra Bernhard. A reminder that certain Jewish women only are popular for their writings, performances with other Jewish women of similar mindset.
Elsewhere, they tend to be loathed. Even by Jewish men, whose idea of heaven on Earth is to marry a shiksa, even one who insists on raising their kids Catholic.; 1/6/09, 2:24 PM
bearbee said...: Women.... Think Pink!!!!; 1/6/09, 3:08 PM
blake said...: It isn't the pink men Jong needs to fear. It is the blue men. Quiet, bloody, violent, uncaring, hypermasculine.

Smurfs aren't really hypermasculine.; 1/6/09, 5:23 PM
Synova said...: Not smurfs.

Didn't Celts paint themselves blue?

(And that was actually a pretty good description of the link provided to blue men... silent, violent, hyper-masculine.); 1/6/09, 6:26 PM
Eric said...: Korean women have a racial slur for western men that goes something like "hairy-pink-monkey-smells-like milk". Oh well, somebody had to fight for their freedom of expression.

Heh. I had a Korean girlfriend for a few years. The one you hear all the time is ko jangee, which translates as "nose person". Doesn't seem that offensive to me, but in Korean there are a bunch of ways to say "person", and that one is pejorative.

My favorite was bango jangee, which means "fart person", or someone who farts a lot.; 1/6/09, 6:36 PM
Anonymous said...: I wouldn't take Erica Jong's comments too seriously.

She's obviously very, very tired and very sick.

When she gets back in shape and is healthy and well rested she'll be more tolerant of the Gentleman of Pinkitude.; 1/6/09, 7:53 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Eric,

"Nose Person"

As in, You Have A Huge Nose, or is there some other significance to the phrase?; 1/6/09, 9:12 PM
Eric said...: As in, You Have A Huge Nose, or is there some other significance to the phrase?

No, that's basically it: Big nose person.; 1/7/09, 3:48 AM
Job said...: Balfegor said "I'm also not aware that Americans ever fought for Koreans' freedom of expression -- South Korea was basically a dictatorship until Kim Young Sam's election."

Everything is relative. South Korea was hardly a paragon of free speech in the 1960s or 1970s but -- given its state-of-war, its neighbors and their histories, it was one of the most "liberal" places on the block. The US dealt with the situation it had, not the one it would have liked.

Balfegor said "I mean, the police went around cutting young mens' hair if it was too long, back in the 70's."

I suspect that the millions of victims of the North Korean regime would have been glad to have their hair cut instead.

Balfegor said, "To the extent there has been liberalisation on these fronts, it's come largely in the last 20 years, from changes in Korean society, especially democratisation. The US generally hasn't stood in the way of these changes, but neither has it been particularly instrumental in futhering them."

Wrong. The US fosters the changes by its very existence and the close relationship it has had with South Korea. The US fosters the changes because without 60,000 dead Americans, South Korea would simply be the southern half of the world's largest and most brutal prison camp.

Without the constant threat from the North, the changes would have occured much sooner.

If South Korea had had democratic traditions, the changes would have happened much sooner.

And, Balfegor, why do you think that you have some special insight into how people of various races smell? The rest of us have noses too. Are you part beagle?; 12/21/09, 10:14 PM