But Dona wanted a feature. And this week's edition was coming up short so it was needed.
We foolishly thought we could string together some quotes from others, dash off a wrap around and exclaim, "Done!"
But we couldn't do that because there really weren't quotes.
It all begins with Mark Leibovich's "Washington Memo -- Man's World at White House? No Harm, No Fould, Aides Say" (New York Times last Sunday). The article documents the unease a number of women feel with a White House which appears to be a relic of a time that should be tossed aside. The article notes Barack's basketball game -- yes, it is rather sad that with the economy in the toilet and all the wars the US has going, the president is playing b-ball -- and how it was an all male event.
Trashy Anita Dunhill insists there's nothing wrong with it and tells Leibovich that she held a shower for a female employee and invited no men. Really? That's something to brag about? A work place baby shower and the White House chose, via Anita, to send the message that a baby was a 'woman's issue'? Really?
Anita Dunhill needs to fade away real quick. She's helped no one (least of all Barack) and sets the cause back for all women every time she flaps her gums.
Because of that article and criticism he's received, Barack decided to have a female golfer in the mix last Sunday. It was game 24 since he became president. The first 23 games? All men. Grasp that he plays a foursome. Grasp that he has invited 3 men twenty-three times while inviting no women.
You think it's not a problem?
Ask any woman who's ever broken the glass ceiling and she'll tell you it's a problem. Ask any woman who's been shut out and she'll tell you about it. Talk to the Paramount women of the late seventies and early eighties. They damn well remember how men got to know each other and mingle and mix on those 'men only' activities while women were left out in the cold. Talk to the women who were part of the Disney crew from the eighties and early nineties and they'll tell you about all the outside networking opportunities . . . for men.
And if you need a visual aid, watch the episode of Friends where Rachel goes to work for Joanna at Ralph Lauren. Joanna and her other assistant smoke. They're deciding everything on smoke breaks. They're making vacation plans and business plans and bonding. And Rachel's left out. And that's just on a smoke break.
These non-work work moments are prime bonding moments, they're moments when you can move up with your issue or project. And anyone who knows the first damn thing about business damn well knows that.
So imagine our shock when we went to NOW's website and found nothing on it. Or when we went to Women's Media Center and found nothing on it.
As appalling as the women playing the quiet game were, what may have been even worse were the women bound and determined to enable and justify Barack's actions.
Jo-Ann Armao (Washington Post) probably regrets her piece since she revealed she was not prepared to write on the subject (Armao has no clue that golf was also an issue). Jo-Ann embarrassed herself also as she rushed to reject all sports (and all sports talk). Jo, if we pretend you're highly feminine, will you calm down already?
Then there was Hadley Freeman. Hadley had to weigh in . . . because she writes for a British paper. And apparently if she couldn't excuse Barack, she might have to cover the public inquiry into the Iraq War or some other issue that's actually effecting her country. Instead, the stringy headed, no-chinned blob (only in England could she work for Vogue -- only in England) rushed to prove she could put the "bitch" in "bitchy."
"A CBS reporter," she snapped, "taking a break from covering things such as healthcare and the recession [. . .]"
First, Mark Knoller. That's the reporter non-journalist Hadley doesn't feel the need to even name. And did she just snap because she didn't think Knoller was following serious issue? Her? The woman who can't stop writing about celebrities? This year alone, she's covered such 'pressing issues' as Shannen Doherty, Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie. And in a misguided attempt to prove her 'feminist' cred, Hadley only recently wrote about Palin "set to the music of R Kelly" because what feminist can't get on board with underage sex which would also be statutory rape?
This is who wants to lecture Knoller?
Poor Hadley, she's got a better chance at passing for fashionable than she does at passing for informed.
Just as we were about to give up, we found one woman expressing indignation:
President Obama could invite Chamique Holdsclaw to the private White House basketball court and Billie Jean King to play tennis with him. I still wouldn't believe he's any more comfortable dealing with women or concerned about "women's" issues than the dearly departed former Sen. Jesse Helms. President Obama talks the talk a lot better and a lot louder than Helms. But Jesse Helms was so rooted in his atavist traditions, he chose to remain true to his misogyny rather than pose for cameras with faux female golfing partners. President Obama must hide the side of his personality that is clearly uncomfortable with women because he needs their votes much more than Helms ever did.
Whether it was his treatment of Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail (as in his condescending remark that she was "likeable enough") or his clearly career-oriented mate who has been toned down and remorphed into a Stepford Wife, I just don't get the impression this man is comfortable with women. Nor do I believe he cares about them beyond needing women's votes. It's an act and a thoroughly see-through, amateur one at that.
That's Bonnie Erbe. And well said.
But we don't mean to imply that Hadley and Jo-Ann didn't also help. Many years ago, Wolf was stuck in rewrite hell. Elaine May had been brought in. And around this point, Michelle Pfeiffer suggested the writers stop trying to find a career for her character to dabble in. Sometimes, Michelle knew, the most feminist statement can come from showing the hollow nature of a life lived in repression with your feet and spirit bound. And that's when the script finally started to gell.
By the same token, Hadley and Jo-Ann did as much as Bonnie. Bonnie elected to speak from strength and use her own voice, no doubt inspiring many young girls as well as many grown women. And then there's Hadley and Jo-Ann served up as the cautionary tale, showing young girls and women how silly and embarrassing you look when you rush to defend the patriarchy, when you try to sell sexism as a form of liberation.
Most of all, we suggest you remember the silence from so many when next Title IX is discussed. Grasp that women think equality on the sports field is important . . . up until a woman leaves college then our faux feminists appear to think a woman's got no reason to complain and certainly no right to. Remember that.
