Well, we know Ann Coulter plays one on TV. After all, gender is performance. The thing is that it is because of her gender performance that Coulter is useful for the Right. We did win the Culture War . . . to an extent. The extent of the small victory is that nowadays the Right can't purvey sexism without having "women" like Coulter give cover for them, racism without having "Black men" like Clarence Thomas and "Asian women" like Michelle Malkin give cover for them, etc. To say that Coulter is a victim of sexism is to say that Thomas is a victim of "high-tech lynching."
> Anyway there's something vaguely insulting to women in general,
> including even the physically lovely ones who'd pass the audition,
> to dismiss Ann Coulter _solely because_ "she's a stringy-ass skank"
> or whatever, as Anti-Coulterites sometimes do. If she'd look a
> little more beautiful - like Gisele Bundchen or something - she'd
> be cool? but she doesn't, so she ain't. Like as though when rating
> a woman - innocent enough in itself, all guys do that, all girls
> rate guys - her physical appearance outranks her intelligence, wit,
> accomplishments and character all put together.
Well, if anyone puts down Ann Coulter _solely_ on account of her looks, she should consider herself lucky -- that's probably the kindest cut. I don't consider an insult to her to be an insult to women in general. She may play a woman on TV, but there is nothing in common between her and women on the left -- her sole raison d'etre for the right-wing media is to insult women on the left in particular and the (very broadly defined) left in general. Her fortune may rise or fall, but that won't affect our lot at all. If ours truly rises, though, hers will go down. (Notice the lack of symmetry here.)
And, speaking more generally, it must be admitted that, regarding _some_ men and women, it is nearly impossible not to believe that their physical appearance outranks their intelligence, wit, accomplishments, and character all put together. What am I to say about Keanu Reeves' "intelligence, wit, accomplishments, and character"? All I can say is that he seems not unpleasant (something that I cannot say about Coulter, Thomas, Malkin, etc.). On the other hand, for women like Emily Dickinson (yesterday was her birthday) and men like Diego Rivera, it doesn't matter at all that they weren't much to look at.
> (I've also got 2,147 files in my q:\pix\fashion\kate_moss directory)
Oh dear, a fanboy. I must say, though, I was rooting for Kate Moss lately, because if her career had gone down with the coke scandal, it would have been a victory for anti-drug-warriors. As it happened, Ms. Moss triumphed:
<blockquote>Recently, Moss has picked up a string of new contracts and held onto her old ones - including, perhaps fittingly, Yves Saint Laurent's Opium perfume.
The ultimate accolade comes Thursday when French Vogue - perhaps the fashion industry's most influential publication - hits the stands with a December issue devoted to Moss. The tag line on the cover: "Scandalous Beauty."
<http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/feeds/ap/2005/12/07/ ap2376518.html></blockquote>
Add the Vogue cover picture to your collection.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>