September 20, 2019

Possibly the most embarrassingly air-headed WaPo headline ever. Maybe we should just look away...

But here it is: "Frederick Douglass photos smashed stereotypes. Could Elizabeth Warren selfies do the same?"

Smashed stereotypes... God help us. This is an idea for a column that should have been considered for 5 to 10 seconds and laid to rest.

Some text, to give you the idea:
The two are separated by race, gender and more than 100 years of history that forged an America that would probably be unrecognizable to Douglass. Still, experts say, their use of photography collapses the distance: Douglass sat for scores of pictures to normalize the idea of black excellence and equality, and Warren’s thousands of selfies with supporters could do the same for a female president.
This is like some nitwit celeb saying that Hollywood is reminiscent of a slave plantation.

As Yale professor David Blight writes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” Douglass used the photos — in which he appeared elegantly dressed, his hair perfectly arranged — as “a means of spreading influence.” Douglass created “for a wide audience successive images of the intelligent, dignified black man,” Blight argues, in a larger bid to convince the country that black inferiority was a racist myth....

Although in a vastly different context, Warren is today confronting another harmful myth, experts said: that a woman is not presidential and does not belong in the Oval Office. Over the course of her campaign, she’s developed a similar strategy to fight back. At the end of every rally, Warren — one of three front-runners in the Democratic race, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll — stays behind to pose for pictures with pretty much every supporter who asks....

“She’s presenting a public image of herself as somebody who is presidential,” said Alexander Alberro, a Columbia professor who studies the history of photography. “What Douglass tried to do was to create a public persona in the face of the negative type of image of African Americans at the time … so I think the comparison is really good.”...

Warren’s photos — especially those in which she poses alongside young girls — are reshaping American perceptions of who can serve as president, experts said.
Just awful. But the author (Hannah Natanson) got "experts" to buy into the comparison. They obviously weren't experts in what's abysmally embarrassing!

103 comments:

henry said...

So selfies are Presidential, but tweets are unPresidential.

I have a difficult time taking this seriously.

Michael K said...

Warren's photos are better than having to hear her voice, at least.

Dave Begley said...

People won't vote for Warren for lots of reason and her being a woman is not one of them.

She's a socialist.
She's annoying as hell.
She gamed the racial preference system to land a job at Harvard Law.
We don't like her.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Desperation is in the air in Democrat circles. Panic, too.

mccullough said...

This is from the same people who compare Trump to Hitler.

JohnAnnArbor said...

I read somewhere that Frederick Douglass had lots of photos taken because he never liked the results.

I like that anecdote. It's a very relatable response, where you think a picture of yourself is terrible and others think it's great.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Don't underestimate how retarded Millenials are about this shit. After years of fostering relationships and relying on considered professional referral, my company is now talking about how to use social media to have the shallow little dipshits come to us directly. It's necessary to maintain market share.

Rory said...

You wish there was a picture of them together, but I'm not sure if Warren would be allowed to pose with a black Republican.

rhhardin said...

Smart blacks are all over. I haven't noticed any presidential women though.

Brains that short-circuit to feelings very quickly. Great for neighborhood-sized problems, awful for system problems.

Eric said...

At least she's willing to let actual people stand close to her and acknowledge their existence. A recent Democratic Presidential candidate never did that.

JMS said...

Agreed, it's awful. I associate "posing for pictures with pretty much every supporter who asks...." more with Kardashians than presidents. Somehow I cant picture Theresa May and Angela Merkel doing this

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Desperation is a stinky cologne.

Sam L. said...

Crazed Lefties gotta be crazy so they'll "fit in".

Drago said...

Has the media/dems/LLR's declared Warren "Another Lincoln" yet?

It's only a matter of time.

Mike Sylwester said...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

doctrev said...

Yes, Professor, you are much smarter than the writers at the Washington Post, congratulations.

I know I'm smarter than their writers, which is why I don't read their fishwrap paper.

Conservatives really need to stop patting themselves on the back for being smarter than insane savages.

tommyesq said...

Did the Douglass photograph make the false claim that he was an Indian? Because that is what Warren's "selfie" description of herself in her job applications did!

Forbes said...

Oldie, but goodie: Fake News.
New hotness: Fluff News.

Bobb said...

Douglas sought to normalize Blacks. Warren seeks to normalize fake Indians. I can see the similarities.

Sebastian said...

"what's abysmally embarrassing!"

Sure, sure. But you already assumed that she is "presidential." She didn't have to embarrassingly prove it.

And before long, we will get the rationalizations that, well, yeah, the selfies were embarrassing, and the Fauxahontas stuff is embarrassing, and the faux-populism of a highly paid defense lawyer is embarrassing, and Medicare for All is embarrassing, but she is competent! serious! expresses American values -- well, she is for women's bodies, anyway, which is an American value!

Keith_Indy said...

"confronting another harmful myth, experts said: that a woman is not presidential and does not belong in the Oval Office."

Where is this myth coming from? Many other countries have had female presidents, queens, and prime ministers.

Could it be the character of those who put there hat in the ring here in the U.S. that are preventing them from becoming President, and not their chromosomal makeup.

Forbes said...

-->"Warren’s photos — especially those in which she poses alongside young girls — are reshaping American perceptions of who can serve as president, experts said.

Taking photos alongside young girls is solipsistic, not presidential.

"Experts" in what??

Bay Area Guy said...

Breaking news! Old photos of Elizabeth Warren dressing up in Paleface.

tim maguire said...

I went to look at the comments to see what other readers of this column that I will not be reading said about it and there's almost no reflection on the argument the author is making. Instead it's just a series of love letters to Warren with a few pointless attacks on Trump mixed in.

So about what I expect from the Washington Post.

LA_Bob said...

Breaking news! Frederick Douglass tweeted from the grave he endorses Elizabeth "Tomahawk" Warren for President. "Man, them snapshots sho' look nice!" he wrote.

stlcdr said...

As Dave Begley said: being a woman is not relevant. As usual, non-conservatives are tied up in identity politics.

Kevin said...

part of what they agreed to do was to use drugs but the dosage turned out to be larger than what they agreed to?

There is no qualification for "experts".

It's the latest version of "some say".

Leland said...

Is there something un-stereotypical of a woman trying to win a popularity contest doing a fad thing like taking selfies to post on the internet?

Kevin said...

Warren’s photos — especially those in which she poses alongside young girls — are reshaping American perceptions of who can serve as president, experts said.

I see a lot of dogs in selfies.

Do these experts feel it's reshaping American perceptions of whether a dog can be president?

tcrosse said...

There must be a photo somewhere of a supporter doing the v-sign behind Warren's head. And wherever there's a photo op, there's a photo-bomb op.

Francisco D said...

Why is this a surprise?

My guess is that the Media are no longer trying to be subtle their role as propagandists for the Democrat party. They are really, really desperate to get rid of Trump.

I have to give Trump credit. He is breaking the rice bowls of the corrupt Deep State.

Peter Irons said...

Selfies are mundane, not presidential. I think of them as meaning you are a tourist or a celerity-stalker Nothing presidential about it.

285exp said...

That video where she said “I’m gonna get me a beer” was very presidential.

gahrie said...

Warren is today confronting another harmful myth, experts said: that a woman is not presidential and does not belong in the Oval Office.

Who believes this anymore? Certainly not Republicans. Republicans would have been entirely happy with Sarah Palin as president. They're still trying to convince Condoleezza Rice to run for president.

The Democratic problem isn't that people won't vote for a woman, it's that they won't vote for the women the Democrats nominate.

Fernandinande said...

It sounds like a dopey way to associate Warren's name with Frederick Douglass. What'd he do?

I clicked the author's name and this is from her latest article:

"Joining the [Pastafarian] faith is easy: People become Pastafarian by saying so, Arthur said. One can also purchase a roughly $25 certificate online to become a “ministeroni."

The Godfather said...

Because nobody had seen an intelligent, dignified woman before Warren? Or an intelligent, dignified Indian Princess?

McGehee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
McGehee said...

"Warren is today confronting another harmful myth, experts said: that a Democrat is not presidential and does not belong in the Oval Office."

Fixed it.

McGehee said...

Sorry, I should've also fixed the word "myth," since it should be "truth."

SeanF said...

Not only is it not a myth, McGehee, but it's not harmful. And Warren is reinforcing it, not confronting it.

Browndog said...

The reason many vote for women is their first hand knowledge and experience of raising a family.

Warren is a barren women, and knows as much about "what a family needs" as she does everything else-

..whatever academia has produced in books and studies.

Nearly everything academia has produced since the '70's is rooted in marxism. Which explains her positions. I can't explain her infatuation with "selfies". Then again, I can't explain why anyone over 30 would be infatuated with selfies other than raw narcissism.

Bay Area Guy said...

"It sounds like a dopey way to associate Warren's name with Frederick Douglass."

You know "Bay Area Guy" has a G in it and an A, and so does Douglass, including Frederick Douglass!

We are now, historically, joined at the hip.

rehajm said...

She’s just so dumb. She thinks 1/1024 Peruvian is enough to perpetuate the lie. She doesn’t understand what a tax loss carryforward is. She makes the same mistakes John Kerry did using stupid talk to sound down to Earth or something.

She’s just so dumb.

Psota said...

Funny thing about Elizabeth Warren...if you look at pictures of her from when she was younger -- in her 20's through 40's -- she had much darker hair. If you squint, you can see how someone might have thought she had some Indian in her. (just Google "young Elizabeth Warren" for images)

Dave Begley said...

Can you imagine Warren delivering the SOTU? Gag!!!

bagoh20 said...

OK, so lets have her face on the curtain and leave Trump behind it at the controls.

Bob Smith said...

Dumb people trying to sound smart.

Bob Smith said...

Dumb people trying to sound smart.

Tomcc said...

Ms. Natanson was at the Crimson in 2018, so I presume her age is about 22/23. WaPo is appealing to a younger demographic... with all of it's concomitant insight.

Bay Area Guy said...

Before she was an Indian, Liz Warren was a Republican:

"I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets. I think that is not true anymore," Warren said. "I was a Republican at a time when I felt like there was a problem that the markets were under a lot more strain. It worried me whether or not the government played too activist a role."

At the next debate, Bernie Sanders should vociferously point this out.

Hagar said...

Maggie Thatcher was definitely of the female persuasion, and she stands today as one of the three great British prime ministers of the 20th century.

bagoh20 said...

Warren isn't the first or the best. Obama was outstanding at simply posing to be presidential. Now that I have learned a little, I realize that looking presidential is just about the least important talent in a President. Lately, I see Trump looking very Presidential, but I've caught a case of deplorable syndrome.

Bay Area Guy said...

Besides Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, how many other Republican-Indian Senators have we had?

traditionalguy said...

President Lizzie's face could finally replace Jackson on the $20. After all she is a descendant of the Tennessee Militia that fought for Andy Jackson in his Seminole Indian Wars. And I have told you guys often what that means .She will never surrender.

tim in vermont said...

Well “re-enforcing stereotypes” just seemed wrong somehow.

mtrobertslaw said...

The Republicans, if they haven't already, are sure to discover a number real Native Americans who were passed over for a position that was awarded to the faux Native American Warren. This is her first problem. Her second problem is the name "Pocahontas" bestowed on her by President Trump. This nickname will not go away.

Bay Area Guy said...

Warren just took another DNA test and found out she's 1/1024 Republican.

Darrell said...

President Lizzie's face could finally replace Jackson on the $20.

Or Obama's on the $3.

tim in vermont said...

"if they haven't already, are sure to discover a number real Native Americans who were passed over for a position that was awarded to the faux Native American Warren”

More likely a black person was passed over. Any minority would have done as well. People forget that.

tim in vermont said...

Funny how in one of the Bond movies, at the end they mock Maggie Thatcher’s husband for being a wimp.

If it weren’t for double standards, they would have no standards at all!

And the ironic thing is that Thatcher’s big crime was taking global warming seriously and shutting down coal mines and building nukes, cutting the UK’s carbon emissions substantially.

JaimeRoberto said...

I knew Fredrick Douglas, Fredrick Douglas was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Fredrick Douglas.

chuck said...

Thatcher did it for me, but it wasn't her photos I found convincing, it was her speech. Remarkable woman, and she is hated by the British left. The left really doesn't like uppity women, uppity blacks, or pretty much uppity anyone.

Martin said...

"...experts said."

Well that's good enough for me. When I was 3 years old, which is apparently the developmental age that WaPo expects of its readers.

Ralph L said...

So Warren has replaced Harris as the PTB's choice.

Nothing says presidential to me like a black leotard top with neon sweater. Just don't put her in nothing.

Tina Trent said...

Douglass didn't have pictures taken of himself to appear intellectual. He wrote essays and books to show he was intellectual.



Bilwick said...

"Douglass didn't have pictures taken of himself to appear intellectual. He wrote essays and books to show he was intellectual."

And unlike most of today's "intellectuals"--as well as Warren and the current clown car of Democratic presidential hopefuls--he was PRO-freedom.

wildswan said...

Bay Area Guy linked to this article: "In an interview with The Daily Beast [in 2014], Warren, [70] ... admitted that up into her early 40s she was a Republican.""

So 4/7ths Republican, 3/7ths Democrat?

Birches said...

Selfie lines are not for Presidents, they're for celebrities or comicon. In that way, Warren is trying to be effective, because she's trying to show she has a passionate fanbase which undercuts criticism from Bernie Bros. on the one hand and Biden centrists on the other.

That could have been an interesting article...

Bay Area Guy said...

If Warren was a Republican until age 47 (about 1996), that means she shared the same political visions as: Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich.

I really think Democrat primary voters have a moral obligation to evaluate this. She could still be a closet Republican. Politically, she speaks with a forked tongue.

Michael K said...

Selfie lines are not for Presidents, they're for celebrities or comicon.

Which describes the Obamas ? Both ? All three ?

All three, it is.

PerthJim said...

Douglass and Warren do have one thing in common - neither will ever be President of the US.

rcocean said...

Sarah Palin did the same thing in 2008, but wasn't remarked on by WaPo.

Gee, I wonder why? I think Fred Douglass' Ghost wonders too.

rcocean said...

Its not clear how much Fred Douglass' writings were actually ghostwritten by white abolitionists. But lets not go into that. Today, they'd be entitled "as told to..." But we all can't be writers. And F.D. was good on the lecture circuit.

rcocean said...

Maybe Fred Douglass and Warren were/are just camera hogs.

bagoh20 said...

I have no doubt that if Warren was still a Republican and running for President, she would play the part of a free-market capitalist conservative just as well as she plays a lunatic socialist now. She does what she has to win the game the way she thinks she can. It's all about winning for her, which is fine, but she cannot be trusted, not even to be honest about who she is. She wants what she wants, period, which explains her application lie about being an Indian. I wouldn't trust her even if I was a lunatic socialist myself. She will stab you in the back too if she needs to.

rcocean said...

Yes, Warren was Harvard Law Professor "Conservative" Republican. Yes indeedy. That's why she got elected as a Mass Senator. Her "Conservatism".

rcocean said...

Just keep thinking that all the D's are "secret Moderates" - like Bill Clinton, Hillary, LBJ, FDR, and Obama.

rcocean said...

Did you realize that John Kerry was a war hero and a hunter? And married to a trilloniare. Who could be more moderate? Or more in favor of gun rights? He was the "true conservative" in 2004.

Bay Area Guy said...

Every time I see Warren speak, I am triggered by the memory of my elementary school principal scolding me for goofing off in the cafeteria. She was one mean lady.

rcocean said...

BTW, David French has already written his "The Conservative Case for X, the Democrat Nominee" he just needs to fill in the name.

Doug said...

People won't vote for Warren for lots of reason and her being a woman is not one of them.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

Birches said...

Oh for sure, Obama's appeal was his cult of celebrity, no doubt. Celebrity has also helped Trump, obviously. But differently than Obama. Because of his longstanding celebrity, it's harder to paint him as a typical Republican villain. There was too much foundation as a tough, but lovable billionaire Playboy to turn off the electorate in places where it mattered most. It's one of the main reasons I believe no other Republican would have won in 2016

Birches said...

But celebrity as an electoral advantage is not the same as acting Presidential. Unless you're writing for the WaPo and have a very limited view of history.

Browndog said...

Blogger Doug said...

People won't vote for Warren for lots of reason and her being a woman is not one of them.

I wholeheartedly disagree.


State your case.

rcocean said...

BTW, its DouglaSS with TWO 's' - not "Douglas". As in Mike douglas, kirk douglas, paul douglas, and steve douglas.

And its not "Bussing" its "Busing". That's still chaffing my ass.
.

rehajm said...

I wholeheartedly disagree.

I wonder that, too.

Democrats constantly harping about the nations's sexism and misogyny and the patriarchy yet they're desperately fighting to run a woman? Stupidity of a disqualifying magnitude it is...

bagoh20 said...

The only way I could dislike Warren more would be if she was a man.

gilbar said...

rhhardin said...
Smart blacks are all over. I haven't noticed any presidential women though.


Nikki Haley?
Condoleezza Rice?

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom T. said...

I think the article may be confusing stereotypes with daguerreotypes.

bagoh20 said...

Who is the woman of either party who is most like Trump: Wealthy and successful in her own right in the private sector, with America first priorities, willing to fight back relentlessly, thick skinned, confident, and capable of intimidating our enimies? Or to put it in leftist terms: "Non-binary Hitler".

MayBee said...

What's funny is Warren's people apparently decided to make a "thing" out of her selfie-taking, and "reporters" are going along with it. How helpful! How newsy!

bagoh20 said...

Why don't intelligent adults do selfies? Because it's lame. Nobody wants another lame poseur president.

rehajm said...

Nobody wants another lame poseur president

To steal a phrase, I wholeheartedly disagree.

William said...

Douglass was an extremely handsome man. He photographed well and probably enjoyed the process. Warren, on the other hand, looks like Warren. It takes real courage for someone who looks like her to submit to so many photographs.....Douglass had a fair number of "metoo" moments, including an ex mistress who committed suicide. What's the statute of limitations on metoo moments. Is it longer than wearing blackface but shorter than owning slaves?

chickelit said...

And its not "Bussing" its "Busing". That's still chaffing my ass.

It should be bussing were English a more phonetic language. Doubling the "s" keeps the vowel short and prevents people from pronouncing it like the s in "using." Also, doubling the consonant is pretty common in English -- cf. swim/swimming, run/running, trip/tripping, etc.

Ass you were

Ken B said...

Warren is being enhanced and promoted by comparing her to a Republican who never received any preference for lying about his ancestry.

Michael K said...

And its not "Bussing" its "Busing". That's still chaffing my ass.

Just don't grab the positive buss in your fusebox.

zefal said...

Don't question the expert textperts.

McGehee said...

SeanF said...

Not only is it not a myth, McGehee, but it's not harmful. And Warren is reinforcing it, not confronting it.
9/20/19, 1:14 PM

Yup.

Kirk Parker said...

In any outfit that was doing real journalism, "experts say" would be e firing offense.

PhilD said...

"The two are separated by race ..."

Oh, come on. I'm quit sure that apart from Warren being a full-blooded 1/1024 Cherokee she will no doubt also be a full-blooded 1/1024 black African.

wendybar said...

One of Warrens fangirls on The Five (Jessica Tarlov) was STUNNED that Lizzy had the stamina to stand for 4 hours taking selfies. I had to excuse myself to go throw up.