Sunday, July 6, 2008

Shut Up, Maureen Dowd

Original Link: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/01/shut-up-maureen-dowd_31.html

Maureen Dowd's column yesterday perfectly underscores the necessity, for the sake of the institution of journalism, that she shut up. It seems as though ever since Hillary Clinton began her run for the nomination, MoDo has become an increasingly ridiculous and infuriating parody of herself. We all know she loves to make up nicknames for everybody, and her mental warehouse of cliches and pop-culture references is a veritable...umm...topical humor Ikea. No, a comedic Home Depot! She's, like, the Carrot Top of prop journalism. She's the Sawyer of the New York Times, except instead of down-home colloquialisms, she's all about the sexism. All the time with the sexism. For example, some excerpts from "Seeing Red Over Hillary:"

Even newly armored by the spirit of Camelot, Barack Obama is still distressed by the sight of a certain damsel...their relations have been frosty and fraught ever since the young Chicago prince challenged Queen Hillary’s royal proclamation that it was her turn to rule...given her brazen quote to ABC News, Obama is right to be scared of Hillary. He just needs to learn that Uncle Teddy can’t fight all his fights, and that a little chivalry goes a long way.

I mean, come the fuck on. This is a bi-weekly column in an internationally recognized newspaper, written by a person who for some reason was once awarded the Pulitzer, and this is what we get? Using the Camelot/queen/prince metaphor to analyze a presidential race is the journalistic equivalent of smashing the keyboard and grunting in monosyllables. I mean, "fraught"? As in "with peril"? Oh, she's using old-timey language; how clever. And Hillary is the "brazen Queen" because she was married to the president and she's all sassy and uppity-like with the power-hunger. Off with their heads, et al. I've said this before and I'll say it eleventy-six more times: Aside from being boring, this kind of cutesy 'journalism' is pure sexism disguised as humor. The tired accusation of female "entitlement," blatant in all Dowd's Hillary-related columns, is just a recycled variation on the ancient fear of women's attainment of social power. For someone who seems to brand herself a liberal, Dowd continues to demonstrate an impressive misunderstanding of feminism.

When I open the Opinion page and see an expository essay on Obama, Clinton and Othello, I'm flying across the country to personally slap her in the face. Until then, there's always the hope that's she'll just shut up.

No comments: