: RE: Partying on the Right

[Liza Featherstone]

Though friendly and pleasant, women were, for the most part, almost as dorky
as the men. That would be an impressive accomplishment for any gathering,
but especially this one, where the male dorkiness level was comparable to
that of a Civil War re-enactment week-end, or a sci-fi convention. I almost
said Society for Creative Anachronism, but the Party of the Right IS its own
sort of creative anachronism. I would say the truly hip-looking women were a
minority -- leaving aside the fact that most women look good in expensive
and semi-revealing eveningwear -- but I was surprised there were any at all.
I mean, I read Conquest of Cool, The Baffler, etc., so I know bohemia is
easily co-opted, but I'm still taken aback when the cultural right dresses
up as hipsters. The Party women with their dye-black bobs smoking outside
reminded me of the heavily-pierced, combat-boot wearing "right-to-life"
teenagers I've seen at recent abortion counter-protests.

Liza 


> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 19:05:04 -0500
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re:: RE: Partying on the Right
> 
> joanna bujes wrote:
> 
>> So, like, what kind of women to these right-wing parties attract?
>> Gold diggers? Religious types?
> 
> Hard to say. There were almost none in my day (because there were few
> women at Yale, and few conservatives of any sex). Several of the
> women in it now seem to be religious - the toaster to the Catholic
> Church was one, as was a sometime Chairman who prefaced her remarks
> by saying she's a lay minister in the Episcopalian church. Many of
> them were rather well-dressed, though I'll defer to Liza for further
> commentary on this topic.
> 
> Doug