…in which Feminema tears her hair out
17 May 2011
“Ladies’ Man or Sexual Predator?”
That’s what they’re asking at ABC News about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (as if I needed more reasons to hate the IMF), in the wake of charges of sexual abuse and rape. That’s right: let’s offer the public one more chance to excuse his behavior as harmless flirting, and fill comments sections with suggestions that Strauss-Kahn’s victims are whiny bitches. I’ll bet you $1000 when the pundits debate this question, they’ll get a woman to defend the “ladies’ man” side of this important question.
Meanwhile, the news about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “love child” (as the press invariably terms it; why not just “child”?) begs the question: you’re surprised? Oh, I get it — you didn’t believe all those women who came forward with reports of The Governator’s predatory nature back when he was running for governor.
And then there’s Roseanne Barr, who’s penned an unforgiving essay in this month’s New York Magazine about her experience being undermined, ridiculed, and dismissed even as Roseanne became a #1 TV show. Tina Fey observed earlier this year in that terrific New Yorker piece that men will call any of us a “crazy bitch” once they no longer want to fuck us. I’ll bet you $1000 that 70% of the response will debate the question, “How much is Roseanne Barr a crazy bitch?”
Message: you can’t win, ladies! So let’s debate whether Schwarzenegger is a ladies’ man or a sexual predator (and let me advise you that if you argue the latter, you will be termed a crazy bitch!).
Update, 11:15 am Tuesday: Our hero, Twisty Faster, has some sparks-flyin’ words at her blog, I Blame the Patriarchy, in which she points out that both Strauss-Kahn and Schwarzenegger shtupped “the maid.” Oh, “the maid.” The media barely treats such women as human, much less worthy of respect.
17 May 2011 at 10:54 am
That Roseanne Barr essay was frightening, as in, made me cry and want to leave the planet for good in a spaceship. Seriously, the only way to control your product is to control every step of it yourself from start to finish. Which no one can do, because it’s too much work. So discouraging.
I *loved* the Roseanne Barr show. There’s one scene where someone walks into her living room and sort of sneers at the mess and she says, “excuse the mess. We live here.”
17 May 2011 at 11:49 am
And how depressing is it that the phenomenally successful star of a show about a working-class family would have to face this much bullshit on the job from people whose salaries she was (effectively) paying?
25 June 2011 at 10:14 pm
Yes. This is what amazes me.