Why Do Women Act So Dumb?
Apropos of John Pomfret’s claim that the Charlotte Allen piece was "tongue in cheek" — well, take it away, MademoiselleJ:
If anyone has any doubts about what a hoot her views on gender, race, and politics are, here’s a few samples
–A compassion piece about Larry Summers on gender difference that gives the lie to the WaPost’s attempt to market the 2 March 08 piece as comedy. Do they think we can’t google?
http://www.dallasnews.com/shar…..35261.html
–from the Weekly Standard on the Jena Six (incendiary opinion suggesting among other things, that the white students who hung nooses in the trees outside a school, had no clue that they might have had anything to do with lynching, racism, or vigilante-ism, nope they were just trying to poke fun at a “rival school’s Western-themed football team.” RRRRRight!)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/…..9bfhgz.asp
There’s more if you can stomach it…
–attacks on “liberal Christianity” with another PHOTO!!
http://commentisfree.guardian&…..pal_r.html
–a charming article on Planned Parenthood with an agenda that is even worse than the Wapo article on 2 March 08
http://www.weeklystandard.com/…..3livny.asp
–a piece that shows she’s about as tolerant of differences in sexual orientation as she is of prochoice activists–brought to you by a pseudoacademic disperser of Business Articles that reprints “Women’s Quarterly” pieces as if they are from serious scholarly journals: http://findarticles.com/p/arti…..i_90305253
–and the piece that seems to have gotten her the buzz as a vamp to hire to spout antifeminist drivel, “Return of the Guy” from 2002’s fake women’s journal again, http://findarticles.com/p/arti…..i_82802439
which contains shocking smears of pathbreaking FDNY Lt. Brenda Berkman. If you want to know more about Berkman, read about the PBS film that features her here: http://www.pbs.org/independent…..renda.html
(undoubtedly one of the things that burns Allen, no pun intended, is that Berkman said no to the morons who said women couldn’t)
With a CV like that, I know I’m convinced any article she’d write on "Women R Stupid" would be tongue-in-cheek and utterly insincere. Right, Mssr. Pomfret?
But more to the point, given the outrage over the piece yesterday, you think the Post’s online site would downplay it today and take any incendiary mention of it off the front page. But no, Jim Brady decided to play it up. Six hundred outraged comments later, he relishes being "provocative":
Jim Brady, arbiter of good taste and judgment — as always.
Laura Rozen, Rachel Sklar, Amanda Marcotte, Jessica Valenti (here and here), Jill Filipovic, Susan Reisman, Moe Tkacik and Megan Carpentier weigh in but perhaps nobody says it better than KJ Lopez (per Lindsey Beyerstein):
Charlotte Allen [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
eviscerates women. I love it.
Not every day a noted Duran Duran scholar and "pro-life" anti-feminist comes right out and says she enjoys watching women get ripped to shreds.
Great work there, Washington Post. No really, I mean it. You definitely hit your target audience.
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hey there
Girls on Film
Madness, madness, madness
zed. Jane!!
drat. That’s what I get for reading it first.
w00t MademoiselleJ!!
(and Teddy, I hope you caught my apology on the last sweet Charlotte post. I knew you didn’t think it was funny. I’m a failure at being arch.)
Will she be the next host of election coverage on MSNBC?
*reaching for towel*
That’s OK — I’ve probably had enough coffee today anyway. And it missed my keyboard and monitor, so I didn’t fry anything.
I’m sitting here laughing…..thinking of Jane’s post a very long time ago called something like “Oh shucks, Jim, You Shouldn’t Have”
Well, this has got to be good for the GOP, right?
Hi Jane!
CCMask! How ya been??
Oh, and what happened to Her Dowdness? Has she always been this way, or did she used to be a Wonkette-like feminine Zorro? I used to think so.
Bob in HI
MademoiselleJ:
As someone might have said on the last thread, the question assumes facts not in evidence. Other than Froomkin, and the business pages that track stocks, has the Washington Post ever shown awareness of Google’s existence?
Oh I think you just called it.
Here’s that post: I’m putting the link at the bottom hoping it works.
Dear Jim,
I know it’s been a while, I hope you didn’t think I’d forgotten you. But when I heard that you’d hired Ben Domenech to set up his own tumescent little outpost of wingnuttia at the post.com, I just had to give my home boy a shout out. I don’t want you to think this is that disingenuous GOP “thanks, Russ Feingold” brand of appreciation that explodes with the pop of Brit Hume’s cranium. No, it’s the sincere faint-when-you-see-the-Jaguar-wrapped-in-a-bow-on-Christmas-morning kind of thanks (I know your kind like to talk about “values” so I figured I’d pick one you could relate to.)
http://firedoglake.com/2006/03…..ldnt-have/
You mean this one?
Hi Bob. I’ve been around. Trouble at work. I think I got fired today.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Bush signed an executive order on Friday, gutting the Intelligence Oversight Board (all agencies now will report directly to McConnell) per smintheus and another order (not sure when) controlling the release of presidential docs BIG time How long before we get to call this a fascist govt for reals?
Hmm, when I’ve been fired in the past, it was sort of – unmistakable. Any chance of rescuing the situation?
Ouch! I hope you’re wrong about that getting fired part.
Sorry: here’s link to control of pres. docs.
(sorry to hear re: job, cc. Hope all goes better than it seems right now.)
I will not stop fighting against what the Republican Party and their Bush family leadership stands for and promotes. I will fight this battle of greed versus compassion to my dying day. Make no mistake Mr. Rove, you will not win. My fellow Democrats, I strongly believe the time has arrived to unite.
So what in her writings led the idiot WaPo editor to conclude that she was capable of writing something “amusing”?
And who decided to offer her column space?
Hmmmm?
I stopped to put gas in my car with the company credit card Friday and it didn’t work. I do some outside sales and banking and the deal is I get a tank a week for about 2 years now. Anyway, I go into work and say to the boss “My card was declined” and she says “I know, I canceled it because I don’t see why I have to give emplyees gas”. Our CEO was killed 2 Christmases ago and his wife, who did nothing but gardening up until he died, is now running things.
I said “Geez, next you will be canceling my health insurance. She says “I canceled that last week”. So, I freaked and went home. I have 3 weeks vacation coming so I didn’t go in today and todayI heard from another employee that I quit.
Is this the woman you pulled from the hands of unscrupulous people when she was just getting her feet wet? You put in a lot of overtime and a hell of a lot of work, right?
Looking at some of those links makes me think that the Post may have edited Allen’s piece down about five notches. What they published was still crazy, mind you, but some of her other items are off-the-charts crazy.
Oh, well. Carry on.
The smartest person I have ever met is a woman. She’s my wife.
That’s the one Margot.
If anyone knows if they are allowed to cancel your health insurance, please let me know in the last thread. Thanks.
Kiddo and Lahoma…this one’s for you, I hope the youtube works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..919/467920
Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from the GOP.
Jane, I don’t think I am smart enough to understand this post. Will you please explain it to me??
Oh, I am so sorry to hear that — hugs, hon, really big ones.
Thanks Christy. Sorry for the interrupt.
I remember that pretty well. I was so proud of you, I thought that lady was so lucky to have you there.
I could put myself in the place of someone who had family tragedy occur (it has happened) and left me trying to pay bills, raise children, save the house, making only a tiny hourly wage… What I would have given for a guide, a helper!
And now this.
LOL
CCmask, so sorry to hear it!
ccmask, which state? employment lawyer a possibility?
Jane, you really did the Post a favor by including your “as always” link to that old post on Jim Brady where you included a portion of Jim’s announcement about Ben Domenech’s departure:
Pomfrit could just cut and paste this in his apology in tomorrow’s Post. He is going to apologize in tomorrow’s Post, isn’t he?
Signing order be damned. I say just take the damned documents. Where’s Dan Ellsberg when we need him? Are there others out there? I’ll bet some brave plots are being devised as we write.
Gawd…that is actually Charlotte in the picture….
No wonder.
Charlotte…go to a spa or something!!
You know, I guess she is too dumb to take care of herself.
Lovey Howell will elide all these details in a management-friendly Ombuds next Sunday, I betcha. We never actually hear from Deb how these decisions are made, just that they are EXCELLENT decisions.
1.775 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
EEEE-doggies…YEAH!!! You go sister Jane…but make sure that the WaPO (mostly male) editors and publisher shills get some light shown on their nasty little nests in the corporate high-rises. I wanna see these women discredited and run outta polite society but the real heat’s gotta reach the faceless and nameless corporate managers who orchestrate this shit.
And waddiya bet Charlotte Allen begins ta show up as guest bloviator on cable “news”?
KEEP THE FAITH AND REMEMBER, FASCISTS AREN’T GOOD FOR CHILDREN OR OTHER LIVIN’ THINGS!!
Florida, Texas. I’ll look into it tomorrow. I just never heard of someone canceling your insurance behind your back. Honestly.
usually they give you a month or two notice
Don’t forget Teddy, according to Lil’ Debbie and the Editors, the WaPo0 doesn’t do any editing of “op-ed” pieces, for facts or anything else.
What a horrible picture that is.
The possibilities of a President Obama are pregnant promise. I can say at this point I am proud to an American, and to support Senator Obama as the next leader of the free world. ‘Proud to be an American’, It’s been a mighty long time since I sensed that sense.
Here you go, Teddy.
They’ve updated Charlotte’s article online, putting this above the headline now:
Sunday should be quite fun, don’t you think?
Pomfret should be fired. Allowing this hate speech — and that’s what it is, don’t kid yourselves — into the Washington Post should be grounds for termination. I wonder what the new publisher thinks? Or is she too dumb to think about things like this?
“Hi Bob. I’ve been around. Trouble at work. I think I got fired today.”
O-o-o-o, bad. Unless there’s a better job waiting for you close at hand.
I was, in effect, fired from my first full-time job as assistant prof. at the University of Maryland back when Lefty Drissel was the BB coach. I was in shock for weeks. But hey, I survived.
Best wishes,
Bob in HI
I am sorry you are going through this. The talents of one mate doesn’t transfer over to the other simply because they shared the same bed or meals together. Shame on her for not discussing this with employees first if she was having a problem. It’s amazing how many company problems are solved by employees.
Her name wouldn’t happen to be Charlotte Allen, now would it?
The French have a description for women like that – bitter and sour.
This stunt allows the Post to treat Allen’s tripe as a traffic-generating “controversy” instead of the misogyny and hate speech that it is.
“Readers had thoughts” is how Deb will spin it.
Trailer trash have a description for women like that – but I cannot bring mys…..
Or is Allen too dumb to have noticed the gender of the boss?
Have responded on previous thread, ccmask.
Comedy? There won’t be much to laugh about with a President McCain leading.
LOL (slap my thigh)
Smart man!
Now that I have actually seen the source I consider the whole thing pitiful and pathetic. That really is sad.
I have a difficult time deciding. Which is most brilliant? Laura, George, Poppy or Babs?
Mary, you devil!
OK Mary. spill it!
I eagerly await the Post’s companion piece “Why are male “journalists” like Jim Brady, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, David Brooks, Jonah Goldberg, and William Kristol so fucking stupid?”
I wonder if Allen’s screed is a big “Welcome Aboard” from the boys on staff to the woman DeeCee is calling Katharine II?
LOL … Betsy, you had me going for a minute …
Jane, Pomfret is a popular Fish in India and I must say that you grilled that Pomfret but good …
See you guys later. I made pasty (Poor Man’s Pie) for dinner and it is golden brown. If anyone wants the recipe, I’ll post it Saturday.
Lahoma is the brain. I’m her warrior. It works out. ;0)
Miss MConnell’s death mask.
On a bad day.
((((( ccmask )))))
They’re dumber than a sack of hammers if they let you go …
Drive by …
I think their copy editor (?) whoever it is that chooses which picture goes with which article has a sense of humor
Is this her in the picture?
PS MaryM did you make it to Suzanne’s? I could have gone with you but I completely forgot about it :-(
AP – Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Monday she’ll press on with the campaign after Tuesday’s crucial primaries, arguing that momentum is on her side despite 11 straight losses to rival Sen. Barack Obama.
Yes I actually read the piece. I would say that in no way was it “tongue in cheek”, it was more like foot in mouth.
Nothing but garbage published to get a rise out of most sane people. One would expect better from a so called “respectable” publication like the Post.
Wow, MademoiselleJ knocks one outta the park.
Sure seems like Charlotte deserves some Digg love.
And BTW, if you missed it last night, there is no better time than the present to Digg Teddy’s The Stains on McCain’s Campaign.
I think the Republicans are feeling the heat. They call it Obama.
Works in my household too.
Did I ever tell you I love you? Don’t tell Lahoma.
Tongue-in-cheek, my ass.
The neurastheniacs in control of the MSM have long wanted to marginalize women.
Atrios has a nice, concise take on Allen’s piece and the Post:
Charlotte Allen and her Right Wing ilk really want to Talabanize women. Her nasty WaPo piece borders on advocating violence towards women. She has that ugly mentality that women get raped because they invite it, so they get what they deserve. I call it hate speech.
Want more war and economic chaos? McCain.
Laura Rozen has more, starting with a note from Deb Howell:
There’s more at the link.
And then there’s Laura Bush.
Will she be the next host of election coverage on MSNBC?
That humor is almost completely accurate. The President and CEO of IWF, Michelle D. Bernard, is a regular election coverage commentator on MSNBC. There is a picture of her here:
http://www.iwf.org/staff/show/384.html
just to play devil’s advocate, maybe THESE were the kind of women charlotte was writing about:
We need Charlotte Allen (and others like her) to remind us that mental health is a national issue if not a crisis.
Perhaps HRC will become the first woman president. That would be fun. Seriously. Watching all these ‘women belong in the kitchen’ characters squirm.
Well, I’ll say this…she was dumb enough to write the article.
The further these cro-magnon’s get pushed into a corner the louder and louder they scream.
Let’s not forget their developing mindset: The white male is the Jew of liberal fascism.
Charlotte Allen and her amen sisters are kapos for these goons.
-G
and the Washington Post was dumb enough to publish it.
Forgive me for finishing the sentence.
Deb has a long history of sending outraged e-mails to readers early in the week. She gets talked out of it by management as the week wears on.
In next Sunday’s Ombuds, she will support the editors and managers at the paper, by saying that Allen is a free-lancer who should have been vetted better. There were very likely composition problems, and illness, which will be the excuse for allowing a draft into print that wasn’t sufficiently reviewed. This will be mostly speculation, as very few working editors or reporters any longer communicate directly with Deb.
She’ll promise that such an outrage won’t happen again, and Deb will launch a major review of articles over the past three years (to be conducted by her assistant in between eBay auctions) to determine if the Post is ever unfair to anyone.
We will never hear of this study again.
And the column of March Sixteenth will be about distinguishing between paid death notices and obituaries, and families’ disappointment with them.
Thank you, thank you. As a woman, I can only handle one dim thought at a time…*G* Well said.
Poor Charlotte…I presume she feels she has lived up to her own minimal expectations as a woman. In my humble existence, I seem to be surrounded by articulate, thoughtful, sometimes commandeering, always logical women. Maybe I’m on another planet. Maybe I don’t exist.
The WaPo will never take responsibility for such dreck, ever.
I will repeat: Pomfret should be fired for publishing hate speech.
It’s that simple.
Oh — Brady too.
I’m a woman and Charlotte says I’m really dumb…isn’t promfret french fries? /s
Pommes Frites!
I still maintain that Sen. Clinton would be good on the SCOTUS.
The sun’s out, the flowers in Golden Gate Park are intoxicating, the day is warm…
What better day to start?
And….
What better day to start?
Fascist govt – for reals.
It sure wears an ugly face.
(((ccmask)))
Crap – just reading down thread. Agree – they would be crazy to let you go. (delusional lack of judgement).
So hope everything is OK for you there.
I remember the odious Charlotte Allen from odious hit piece she did on female scientists during the Harvard/ Summers blow up.
As a female scientist who has fought long and hard to survive in a man’s world, that whole episode was deeply discouraging. If I didn’t have tenure, I probably would have quit science. And, sad to say, I would never encourage a young woman to take that career path. I was so upset in fact that saved every single newspaper article re: that in .pdf format. I have a CD of them all.
Allen’s article (see link from MadamemoiselleJ) was one of the worst, but definitely not the only one of its ilk. There’s a lot that attitude about.
Tongue in cheek? You know, Pomfit probably believes this. Because bashing women is funny haha. Just like jokes about blacks used to be so “funny”.
Heads up- hate speech against women (generic, but not by the legal definition, alas) is still fine and dandy. Whereas racism does get slapped down. Just try rewriting that column imagining it was written by a black person, saying blacks are dumb, bad drivers, etc. and its hatefulness is apparent.
I look forward to the time when it is every bit as unacceptable to bash women as it is to do race bashing/ racism.
Valley Girl, I look forward to that time, too. FWIW, I do find the values you (and I) seek in the vast majority of the UC med students I’ve seen the last 15 or so years…(including 100% of the UCSF students).
I think we’ll both live to experience that time.
Of course, I’m just on the clinical side – I still believe sexism hammers academic (like other) women by denying funding, opportunity, tenure, and power.
How the hell does someone cancel her employee’s health insurance with no notice? That’s really low.
Now there’s a woman that sounds like someone Charlotte Allen would find compatible.
Ahh, Charlotte Adams. When in doubt (and on deadline, with no apparent salable idea in mind,) stab one’s gender in the back.
Can’t wait to read the retraction that won’t be coming as a result of this.
-S
Thanks for the comments, Kirk. I hope you are correct.
I remember, alas, the comments of Nancy Hopkins of MIT, who headed the study of the fate of women faculty in science at MIT- which indeed showed that women don’t get a fair shake.
Quoting from memory, but she said something to the effect that every generation of women thinks (when they are young and new to the game) that the problem of discrimination has been solved. And, then they discover that they have to fight the same battles all over again.
s- don’t think “on deadline” is a viable out, bec. this woman has been writing this type of hit piece for a long time.
i clicked through the weekly standard link for one of the articles and couldn’t help noticing the WS cover featured there with william buckley looking positively hitlerian!
still scratching my head over Duran Duran scholar.