The XX Factor: What women really think.

Slice and Dice, and Then Dice Some More

I really appreciate Bill Bishop's well-argued point in Slate today that there is no women's vote, or even white women's vote, at stake in this election. The idea is that the categories are too broad to be meaningful; even two women of the same race and class who went to the same high school or college may have too little in common to be targeted effectively by the same advertising message. Instead, campaigns should slice and dice by lifestyle—VW-driving moms who don't own TVs, city-dwelling twentysomethings who drink diet soda religiously. We each deserve our own personally tailored message!

OK, I get it, and I bow to the marketing gods of fine dicing—with two caveats. First, I rue the tedious quest for the next great swing voting bloc (soccer moms, hockey moms, offended military wives). Bishop is really arguing against this, because based on his thesis there is no identifiable swing group big enough to get your hands around, at least nationally speaking. But if we forget to dice finely enough, we end up back in the land of the Red Lobster exurbs. Second, I wonder if Bishop's argument about class holds entirely true, at least if you factor in geography. Do white women who make less than $50,000 a year and live in southern Ohio, say, really fracture into lots of little voting pieces? Do white women who make more than $100,000 a year and live in Miami?