Dickerson’s sexist screed
I could not help but get the feeling that Debra Dickerson falsely “proves” what she is trying to disprove in her piece entitled Michelle Obama’s sacrifice. And that is that women are not capable of making their own decisions. Clearly, they are- and have been – able to make their own decisions for a long time. But since Michelle Obama’s decision does not mesh with what Dickerson thinks she ought to do then we get a sexist screed.
There is a lot wrong with this piece- but I’ve selected just a few of my personal favorites to quote.
Inanity 1: “But until more women who want to work feel free to do just that, they’ll continue to be mere appendages of their men, and the American workplace will remain just as family-unfriendly as it is now.”
How insulting. My wife is not an appendage- she is my partner in life and best friend and would no doubt be insulted if called an appendage. If I need something proofed before I submit it to my editor, I’ll ask her. She has a talent for seeing details I miss. If she needs something very heavy lifted she will call me. I have more testosterone than she does. One of us is not better than the other, but we are different. Despite these differences we are very happy together.
And don’t get me started on decrying as “family-unfriendly” the workplace- which is little more than code for “more government regulation is the answer.”
Inanity 2: “Any day now, Michelle Obama’s handlers will have her glued into one of those Sunday-go-to-meeting Baptist grandma crown hats while smiling vapidly for hours at a time. When, of course, she’s not staring moonstruck, à la Nancy Reagan, at her moon doggie god-husband who’s not one bit smarter than she is.”
How insulting, though to which Obama I’m not sure, as one of them has to be smarter than the other. It may be Michelle or it may be her husband (I neither know nor care) but one of them surely has a higher IQ than the other. The odds of their sharing the same IQ is slim to none. Now, my wife is clearly a lot smarter than I am. She has a genius level IQ. I don’t and that is an obvious fact. I’m not a fool, mind you (I married her, didn’t I?) but I’m outclassed by her when it comes to intelligence. But that’s okay- I outclass her in other areas. The point is that we complement each other’s weaknesses. And, despite these weaknesses, we are very happy together.
Inanity 3: “Most important, though, I hope Michelle will bring feminism to black women.”
“Feminism” and “feminist” are mentioned 12 times in her piece and, if it the same kind of feminism my wife derides (man bashing, man blaming, “poor, pitiful little me because of all the big, bad, mean men in the world”) then feminism is the last thing any woman needs, black, white, yellow, whatever. So Michelle Obama should do what Michelle Obama wants to do. It is between she and her husband what each do to be very happy together.
The point - if you don’t like your place in the world then change it. But don’t deride others for their personal family decisions and the place they choose to be- which is by their spouse and family more so than any other “place” they have to be.
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