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A post from guest blogger Lauren Bans:
Dahlia,
you're right. We shouldn't be surprised that a ridiculously bigoted
thesis came from a man whose record reflects those very views. And
neither should McDonnell be surprised that his thesis is now a campaign
issue. He's the one who told the Washington Post about its existence ... (Read more in DoubleX.)
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Today, the front page of the Washington Post has another installment in the "feminists are pissed" series dominating the press (and soon to dominate more if Hillary loses today). They call her a witch, a hag, an old bimbo, say the leaders of NOW. They are threatened by her power. Once again, I can't relate, particularly since the NOW leaders never even consider the possibility that people simply may not like her. But one thought did strike me in reading this. One of the NOW leaders tells the story that she was wearing a Hillary sticker in a hotel and a man came up to her and said, "Ah, come on. A woman's place is in the kitchen." I'm not sure I believe the story, but let's say it's true. Maybe what it means is this: There are people who still believe this. When I travel around conservative Christian circles, it's commonly held that a woman's place is not in leadership. This is true even for modern, highly educated conservative evangelicals. In my book, I focus on a couple of highly successful young career-minded women who are facing this dilemma—work or cede your life to your new husband and family. Basically, they all choose the latter. This makes this "ism" different from "racism." No conservative Christian would argue anymore that the black man needs to be kept down. But they do have a coherent, theological, philosophical explanation for why a woman's place is fundamentally still in the kitchen. One may disagree, but is this the same as sexism?
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Thank you to Feministing for pointing out that after getting hundreds of reader comments, the Post tried to mute the Allen controversy by quietly changing the headline from "Women Aren't Very Bright" to "Why Do Women Act So Dumb?" Now that's forthright.
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