Evidently, all it takes to get the endorsement of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is to call women whores. Used to be that you’d at least have to sexually harass them. If only Stanley Kowalski had run for governor in Louisiana--how Terry O’Neill would have swooned.
O’Neill, the president of NOW, has taken the mystique of the feminine mystique to a whole new level. Her organization has always had a peculiar definition of “equal rights” for women, but its standards have dropped in the last decade or so since having publicly endorsed President Bill Clinton after he seduced an intern in his office. Used to be that you’d at least have to lay hands on a woman, maybe get creative with a cigar, and then righteously trash said woman as a creep and a demented stalker. Maybe issue a vigorous denial or two of ever having had “sexual relations with that woman.”
All California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown had to do was dismiss his female opponent as a whore, and NOW couldn’t issue its public endorsement fast enough. There is still some dispute as to whether it was Brown personally who made the comment or an aide, to whom he voiced agreement. Either way it's a clear insight into Brown's moonbeam mind. And he wants to be the next governor of California. Indeed, we’ve come a long way, baby.
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Brown’s opponent, aka that whore, is of course Meg Whitman, a woman who has arguably done more to promote the equality of women than any other of her generation, leaving shards of broken glass ceilings behind her everywhere she has gone. She has served as an executive at powerhouse companies such as Disney, DreamWorks, and Hasbro, but she is best known for having taken a small Silicon Valley start-up , eBay, and turning it into a multibillion-dollar behemoth on the cutting edge of American business. She has been inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame and been named the eighth-best performing CEO of the past decade by Harvard Business Review. Fortune magazine has put her on its list of the top five most powerful women in America.
Still, it’s true: There appears to be no record of Whitman having called a woman a whore, filthy or otherwise, or of having seduced an intern in her office when she was CEO. Or having seduced an intern and calling him a whore (or “daddy”) while doing so. There is no evidence of her using the term sugar buns or engaging in ass-patting.
Seriously, what kind of feminist is she?
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Reader Comments Read all comments (10)
Rachael of CA 5:08AM October 13, 2010
DeeToo of SC 1:51AM October 13, 2010
Becca of CO 11:19PM October 12, 2010