> Yoshie writes:
> >If some men object to the
> >inflation of both her politics and looks, is it necessarily sexism?
>
> That would be a very subtle save of a non-subtle (but routine)
> dismemberment.
>
> Jenny Brown
Well, "a non-subtle (but routine) dismemberment" works like this: when I was in college, I overheard conversations between male professors, who were complaining of the looks of a newly hired woman professor, to the effect that she pasted a photo of her younger self on her rirekisho (resume -- it was and probably still is common to require in Japan that applicants place their photos on their resumes!!!) and that they were much disappointed when she showed up for her job interview. Now, that's sexism, totally uncalled for (especially considering the fact that the male professors in question were pretty ugly themselves).
In the case of Ann Coulter, though, she has been an instrument of the Right who wanted to claim, "Look, aren't our women drop-dead gorgeous, compared to frumpy feminists on the Left?" (Let it be noted that women on the Left are somehow just assumed to be frumpier than women on the Right -- no evidence necessary in their mind.) Indeed, that's what Coulter herself says:
<blockquote>Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do. My allies are the ones wearing crosses or American flags. The people sporting shirts emblazened with the "F-word" are my opponents. Also, as always, the pretty girls and cops are on my side, most of them barely able to conceal their eye- rolling. Democrats are constantly suing and slandering police as violent, fascist racists -- with the exception of Boston's police, who'll be lauded as national heroes right up until the Democrats pack up and leave town on Friday, whereupon they'll revert to their natural state of being fascist, racist pigs.
A speaker at the Democratic National Convention this year, Al Sharpton, accused white police officers of raping and defacing Tawana Brawley in 1987, lunatic charges that eventually led to a defamation lawsuit against Sharpton and even more eventually, to Sharpton paying a jury award to the defamed plaintiff Steve Pagones. So it's a real mystery why cops wouldn't like Democrats.
As for the pretty girls, I can only guess that it's because liberal boys never try to make a move on you without the UN Security Council's approval. Plus, it's no fun riding around in those dinky little hybrid cars. My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call "women" at the Democratic National Convention.
<http://www.anncoulter.org/columns/2004/072604.htm></blockquote>
How's that for unsubtle dismemberment?
As far as I'm concerned, those are fighting words, and it is time for us to fight back and deflate Coulter's claim to beauty. After all, beauty is merely a matter of conventions -- there is no reason for us to let her get away with her "pretty girl" act just because the Right -- including herself -- tell us to worship her (or else).
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>