Althouse: "And when in doubt, go with the particularly American feelings about gender that would rather see Martha Stewart go down than Lee Iacocca..."

May 26, 2010

"And when in doubt, go with the particularly American feelings about gender that would rather see Martha Stewart go down than Lee Iacocca..."

"... that would choose almost anybody, for any public office, over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sarah Palin's entire narrative is based on the audacity, the sheer gall. Accusations of female arrogance have been big over the last year, taking up about half of the political discourse and even more of the conversation about entertainment...."

19 comments:

former law student said...: American Idol as sociology lab.; 5/26/10, 10:28 AM
mesquito said...: Please, Althouse. Please tell us you didn't actually read all that.; 5/26/10, 10:28 AM
MadisonMan said...: I'm visualizing Lee Iacocca going down on someone. It's not a pretty sight.

Martha Stewart doing the same thing? That's Hot!; 5/26/10, 10:37 AM
Anonymous said...: That's a pretty heady anaysis...TWP thinks it applies to AI-voting pre-teens?; 5/26/10, 10:41 AM
Unknown said...: "And when in doubt, go with the particularly American feelings about gender ... that would choose almost anybody, for any public office, over Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Hillary was a terrible candidate, but, in matters of gender and PC generally, ability counts for nothing.

WV "addlize" The real MadMen; 5/26/10, 10:43 AM
Scott M said...: lol @ FLS...exactly. And about as much gravitas.

A couple of quick things here, prefaced by the fact that I have never watched American Idol for longer than it took to get to the next channel in sequence. Add to that the fact that I'm a bit confused about why it was such a big hit...

First, women are catty about other women to a degree men find surprising as they get older. So, watching a "girl who knows she's better than this" getting her comeuppance is already desirable by half the population. Mix in the fact that few things get men more pissed off than a woman that "knows" her shit don't stink, and you've got an atmosphere that clamors for her downfall without even a pinch of Martha Stewart/Iacocca. By the by, that seemed a particularly inept analogy.

Second, "that would choose almost anybody, for any public office, over Hillary Rodham Clinton", is a curious double entendre re Obama? Granted, I'm an admitted Hillaryphile but it's got nothing to do with her plumbing being internal.; 5/26/10, 10:48 AM
Scott M said...: d'oh...outsmarted myself there. Should be Hillaryphobe. She's certainly icky enough to warrant her own phobia.; 5/26/10, 10:50 AM
paul a'barge said...: Ah, the treatment of females in Famousland.

Point me to one other planet or alternate reality in which a famous male politician has a stalker/writer rent the house next door and peer at the male over the fence.

Just one example would blow my mind.; 5/26/10, 10:57 AM
Unknown said...: yes FLS, a useless sociology lab.

most of the successful people out of idol didnt even win ! so who is voting ? and who is buying music ? and what is happening to the singers that win that make them irrelevant ?

you know ... i posed these questions; but i couldnt care any less ...; 5/26/10, 10:58 AM
AllenS said...: Did anybody feel a lot safer when Martha Stewart was in prison?; 5/26/10, 11:09 AM
Opus One Media said...: Ahhh yes. American Idol as a source for inspiration and wisdom...and commentary about it ringing out over the land...

The republic is truly in danger.; 5/26/10, 11:16 AM
ricpic said...: Female arrogance is under assault? On what planet? Women nowadays, and the younger the more-so, proclaim without the slightest doubt that the world is totally about female concerns (like fashion and hairdos and cosmetics and, um...children) and female on female competition over those concerns. Men? Those drones that somehow (and who could care less) keep the bridges from falling down? Inconsequential.; 5/26/10, 11:35 AM
Trooper York said...: The problem with so many people is the false sense of entitlement.

As that great Sage Dina Manzo from the Real Housewives of New Jersey so rightly said "They need to get hit in the head with a wooden spoon. That's no joke getting hit in the head let me tell you."; 5/26/10, 11:49 AM
Hagar said...: I am much against electing career criminals to the White House, but of the three we had to choose between, Hillary was much to be preferred in terms of ability to handle the job.; 5/26/10, 12:53 PM
HKatz said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/26/10, 12:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Ricipc: "Women nowadays, and the younger the more-so, proclaim without the slightest doubt that the world is totally about female concerns (like fashion and hairdos and cosmetics and, um...children) and female on female competition over those concerns."

I remember reading about a fashion show that took place in New York during WWII. To one writer who was there the staggering importance of hemlines completely over-shadowed such ephemeral matters as the Normandy Invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, or deaths on the battlefield.; 5/26/10, 2:06 PM
Kurt said...: I have problems with the premises behind the quoted observation. If Americans felt better seeing Martha Stewart fall than Lee Iacocca, I suspect it had more to do with the fact that Martha was Martha and so there was a large degree of Schadenfreude involved.

With regard to Hillary, it's fair to say that the Democrats who voted in the party's caucuses and many of the primaries rejected her, but I remember seeing a poll after the election which suggested that had she been the party's nominee, she would have defeated McCain by a larger margin than Obama. While I know many Hillaryphobes, I also know many people whose view of her changed during the long, drawn-out primary season. It was not uncommon to hear reluctant McCain supporters express the idea that they wished Hillary had been the nominee instead of Obama.; 5/26/10, 2:55 PM
Peter Hoh said...: If you like dishy reviews, this review of Sex and the City 2.

It is, in the words of the reviewer, "essentially a home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls."; 5/26/10, 3:56 PM
Anonymous said...: It's truly amazing the level of bile and vituperation Palin gets from other women. Even more bizarre is the way they accuse her of being a mean head-cheerleader type when in actual fact she was a quiet, bookish basketball player. Every girl who ever felt left out of the "in" clique in high school seems to now have daggers out for Sarah. It is totally without basis in reality.; 5/26/10, 6:21 PM