The most interesting thing about Naomi Wolf, according to Naomi Wolf, is Naomi Wolf. The original "It's All About Me" feminist is back with her latest treatise on feminism and the presidential race.
Now I will say this, a lot of her ideas about carefully cultivating the images of the women around the candidate are interesting and probably true. Unfortunately and as usual, she gets a bit out of hand with stuff like this:
The charges are sticking because of Teresa Heinz Kerry. Let’s start with “Heinz.” By retaining her dead husband’s name—there is no genteel way to put this—she is publicly, subliminally cuckolding Kerry with the power of another man—a dead Republican man, at that. Add to that the fact that her first husband was (as she is herself now) vastly more wealthy than her second husband. Throw into all of this her penchant for black, a color that no woman wears in the heartland, and you have a recipe for just what Kerry is struggling with now: charges of elitism, unstable family relationships, and an unmanned candidate.
Umm, no. Teresa's penchant for black and a double surname aren't turning middle moms against her--it's more that you get the impression that she REALLY, REALLY doesn't want to be doing all that campaign crap to begin with. And as far as I'm concerned, if she doesn't want to do it, she shouldn't have to. I'm a middle-American mom, albeit a pretty well educated one, and I don't sit around parsing the hidden meaning of faux cuckolding via a retained surname on the part of a presidential candidate's wife. Dear God. And I'd be fine with a candidate's wife who eschewed the process entirely. But then maybe I'm just a weirdo. Or a post-feminist. Pick one.
Anyway, one gets the sense as the article reaches its somewhat hysterical conclusion (Beware the Stepford Republicans! They are wily and only lie! The minute they are elected the world will end in a fiery cataclysm that incidentally follows all of the plot points of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale!) that Ms. Wolf is still somewhat less peeved at the Republican platform than she is that American women haven't listened to her. Because she, Naomi Wolf, is the One True Way.
In Wolf-land, that is reason enough to lament. Well, that and the fact that even after all these years, "modern women maddeningly long for men who are tender in private but authoritative in public." Damn stupid women.
Posted by Big Arm Woman at September 22, 2004 10:15 AMOh, don't worry about 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Margaret cribbed all the interesting bits from Robert Heinlein's 'If This Goes On...'
Posted by: Lazarus L at September 22, 2004 11:51 AMI've always thought all that analyzing crap was overrated.
Of course women wear black in the Heartland. Good grief.
I remember all the handwringing over the damage Hillary's hair did to her image. I thought it looked OK long with an Alice-in-Wonderland band, I thought it looked fine cut in an Execubob, and I think it looks fine now. Her vision of America, and the proper role for the government, scares hell out of me. It's nothing to do with her hair, and never was.
Are some people really that shallow?
Posted by: Laura at September 22, 2004 01:16 PMI dig that: Execubob. I think I have a Chaoshag! As for a candidate's spouse potentially not taking part in the process, I direct you to exhibit D, for "Dean". His wife appeared on 60 Minutes with no makeup, no interest, no "Dean" in her name, and no plans for educating illiterate children. Not long after, Howard was done. Coincidence?
Posted by: Belle at September 22, 2004 01:48 PMBelle -
There is the Dean factor, but I would suggest to the less than motivated candidate's spouse to not appear in public at all. And I think Dean would have been done anyway--the "scream" incident and subsequent nosedive in the polls was a lot of things, but it wasn't a reflection on his wife.
Laura -
Yes, some people are that shallow, Naomi Wolf being foremost among them. And the fact that she has the temerity to paint all women in the "heartland" as foolish and easily swayed by freaking color schemes and a "xanax demeanor" makes me want to bitchslap her with my calloused "heartland hands." Silly cow.
Posted by: BAW at September 22, 2004 03:22 PMOTH, Naomi Wolf did briefly give way to sense with "Fire with Fire"--- the book about power feminism vs victim feminism, about ten years ago? Sadly, I think she was bitch-slapped back into the collective afterwards. Pity. There were some glimmerings of sense, there, for a while.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at September 22, 2004 04:25 PMMs. Wolf's treatise after the post about the baseball-analogy thesis...
Ya know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think that women writers wouldn't know a "reality check" if it came up and kicked them in the shins.
Sadly, I'm not surprised that these women are twisting logic around the facts to make it fit preconceptions.
Of course, I'm one of them happy wives and mothers, so what the hell do I know about how the world really works...
Posted by: di at September 22, 2004 07:36 PMThe problem with Naomi Wolf is that she has no off button. Have you ever seen her interviewed? If I'd been a co-guest I'd have lasted about five minutes before my complimentary NBC Nightline coffee mug over her head.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at September 22, 2004 10:04 PMThat should have been "before smashing my complimentary NBC Nightline coffee mug over her head." Time for bed.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at September 22, 2004 10:06 PMNever mind that Heinz-Kerry flat-out stated that she "never expected the process to go this far." I forget which magazine article...one of those browsing-in-the-physician's-waiting-room tomes, but it was a definite in yer face "IdonwannabedaFirstLady" whine. Happy to oblige you on Nov. 2, my dear!
Posted by: Sally at September 23, 2004 07:59 PM