President Mackenzie Allen of NBC’s new series “Commander in Chief may” become the radical feminist minority’s fantasy president.
As long as there’s no double standard with regard to treatment and achievement, the sex of the person in the White House is irrelevant. Naturally, I’d prefer a Lady Thatcher to a Lady Macbeth from New York, but sex just isn’t a real consideration for me.
Writing in Human Events, Carol Platt Liebau, however, points out that the recent shenanigans of female politicians on Capitol Hill don’t advance the fem dream of electing a real-life Mackenzie Allen to the Oval Office:
“Sadly, the recent behavior of some of America’s prominent female politicians has done nothing but play into misogynist stereotypes.
“Take Dianne Feinstein’s ridiculous behavior throughout the John Roberts hearings. From the beginning, she arrogated special authority to herself by virtue of her sex — “[A]s the only woman on this committee, I believe I have an additional role in evaluating nominees for the Supreme Court, and that is to see if the hard-earned autonomy of women is protected,” she announced in her opening statement.
“What presumption. It would be outrageous for a man to assume that he could speak for an entire sex. And, indeed, politicians are supposed to do their jobs on behalf of all their constituents — not just those of a particular sex, race or even political affiliation.
“With her self-aggrandizing grandstanding, Feinstein lived down to the stereotype that women’s decision making is more often based on personal experience than rational analysis.
“But Feinstein’s stated reasons for opposing Judge Roberts were, if anything, even more demeaning. Apparently, she was disappointed not to hear the judge ‘talking to [her] as a son, a husband and a father.’
“Why would she need an in-depth understanding of the judge’s family relationships in order to assess whether he’s qualified to sit on the Supreme Court? How exactly are the particulars of his apparently stable marital and familial relationships even relevant? And how ridiculous would a man sound making the same intensely personal, hyperemotional argument?”
Ifeminist’s astute Carey Roberts suggests that many female politicians–including Gov. Loco Blanco of Louisiana–are still not ready to accept genuinely sex- neutral standards:
“While TV viewers were treated to the fantasy of a female president on Tuesday night, American voters saw the reality of female politicians when they woke up the next morning. That’s when Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco appeared before a Senate panel investigating the Katrina disaster.
“The day before, former FEMA head Michael Brown, in his appearance before the panel, charged that Blanco had failed to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, contributing to the overall breakdown of law and order.
“But when Blanco waltzed into town on Wednesday, she requested chivalrous lawmakers to not ask any embarrassing questions. Instead of being treated like any other accountable public official, she was feted like royalty. That’s a double standard in my book.”