If I were a right-winger, I supposed I'd be pretty steamed at Newsweek's "Wimp Factor" cover featuring Mitt Romney, and I might want to do a parody of it. But a parody that's going somewhat viral on the right is, well, curious:
This showed up somewhere off the beaten blog path, at the Web site of the John Locke Foundation, but it's been linked by Glenn Reynolds, husband of "men's rights" champion Dr. Helen Smith, and by beauty pageant aficionado John Hinderaker at Power Line.
I had problems with the original Newsweek cover, largely because it equates superficial masculinity with competence and integrity. But Michael Tomasky, who wrote the Newsweek cover story on Romney, was making a larger points about Romney's lack of principle. This parody is just about the horror of a male possibly listening to a woman. And, I suppose, a black woman (or two black women!) at that.
Of course, that wasn't a problem in George W. Bush's first term, when it was considered awesome that Condoleezza Rice had the president's ear because she was seen as a heroic freedom-fighter. (A recent Fox poll suggests that rank-and-file Republicans still like Rice a lot, and would really like her to be Romney's running mate.) Oh, and, when it suits their purposes, wingers sing the praises of Margaret Thatcher, Phyllis Schlafly, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Sarah Palin, and plenty of other women.
I'm struck by the Valerie Jarrett reference in this parody, and in the story the parody is citing, the one in the Daily Caller that said Jarrett got Obama to postpone the bin Laden raid three times. I expected the Caller story to dredge up all the sinister-sounding stuff in the right's Jarrett dossier -- her father-in-law was a big commie! -- but it's as if the right isn't even bothering to try to sell that story anymore. The bottom line on Jarrett seems to be: She has Obama's ear. She has a vagina. Isn't that horrible enough?
Really -- on manliness, this is all they've got? Their own fear of girl cooties, projected onto the rest of the electorate?
9 comments:
Besides the "pussy-whipped" reference, there's also the uppity slave factor - as in whipping that n*gger but good - 'til you can see his backbone through his torn flesh.
"Dog-whistles?"
These are two air-raid sirens in one - played through an amplifier system that The Who would envy.
Yes, geniuses, I think that was the POINT, to demonstrate how crude and, not least, homophobic supposedly liberal and enlightened Newsweek's "wuss" cover was. I know you're trained to howl "racism" at everything, but do try not to smack yourself in the face with a rake handle when someone is making a satirical point.
Where the hell did you get "homophobic"?
Racist? There's nothing more racist than the above cover.
If you think Newsweek is liberal, you don't read it.
Sometimes, Michael, it's better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are fool.
Hey, Michael, what part of "I had problems with the original Newsweek cover, largely because it equates superficial masculinity with competence and integrity" don't you understand?
Before you denounce something I wrote, try reading it first.
Before you denounce something I wrote, try reading it first.
That requires actual effort. It's so much easier to scan for a few key phrases and then take umbrage.
War on women? What war on women?
Nothing to see here, move along...
"If you think Newsweek is liberal, you don't read it."
You have defined your own point of view sufficiently to discredit it.
"Hey, Michael, what part of "I had problems with the original Newsweek cover, largely because it equates superficial masculinity with competence and integrity" don't you understand? Before you denounce something I wrote, try reading it first."
I read it just fine. You're the kind of tolerance cop who thinks he gets to decide how far satire can go and it's never further than himself. Like the good Establishment liberals who cluck-clucked at Dr. Strangelove and Paul Krassner going too far, or do the same to South Park today, sorry, you don't get to decide how other people mock the Establishment.
You're the kind of tolerance cop who thinks he gets to decide how far satire can go and it's never further than himself.
And you're the kind of sniveler who whines that criticism of your allies is equivalent to a police state for ideas. I'm exercising my right to criticize. I'm nobody's cop. Oh, but I forget: you guys can dish it out, but you can't take it.
Michael - would you care to step outside? We'll find out who can take it. Any time, any place, nigger.
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