Sunday, April 29, 2018

Michelle Wolf's Misogyny


The internet is abuzz today about someone named Michelle Wolf. As you know, she headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner last night and managed to cover herself in ignominy by offering up a vulgar and ignorant attack on female members of the Trump administration.

As though to prove a point made more than a decade ago by Christopher Hitchens, Wolf was seriously unfunny. She was rude, offensive and obnoxious. There’s nothing funny about calling women professionals liars. And there is nothing funny about saying that Ivanka Trump is about as useful to a woman as an empty box of tampons.

If you fell down laughing when you heard that joke, you have been brainwashed to within a millimeter of your sanity.

Wolf also demonstrated point that intrigues me: women’s inhumanity to other women. Obviously, her madness had a method to it. Any woman who fails to toe the feminist party line will be taken out and trashed and thrashed. It was a warning shot against any woman who would think to vote for Trump. But, it also showed the misogyny at the heart of the feminist project. These are not women who like other women. These are women who only like women who belong to their cause.

The Trump administration has had a notably hostile relationship with the press. The president declared last night in Michigan that he refused to attend a dinner where empty-headed stand-up comedians would trash him and where he would be obliged to smile. Because if he didn’t smile he would be called ungracious… or something.

And yet, the press corps has been at war with the Trump administration. Opinion journalists are not the issue. Their views are clearly labeled as opinion and they more often than not live up to the label by being opinionated. The real issue is the slanting and skewing news coverage… in order to make the president look bad. No matter what happens the press wants to make Trump look bad. One cannot fail to mention that Trump, especially in his use of Twitter, often seems to be colluding with them.

In the meantime, the White House press corps could have shown some grace, some dignity and even some good humor. Donald Trump can laugh at himself. He has shown the ability to indulge self-deprecating humor. And yet, he will certainly not be impressed by the Michelle Wolf rant against women.

Many attendees noted that Wolf had pretty much ensured that President Trump will never attend such an event. And she had missed an opportunity to heal the breach that has opened up between the press and the Trump administration.

One notes the following tweets. Some of the journalists understood how bad it was for them:



That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.

Unfortunately, I don't think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight.


Couldn’t agree more. So much important and amazing journalism this year — that should be the focus, when truth matters and is needed more than ever. It was an embarrassment in the room and surely to the audience at home. https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/990437494440321024 

10 comments:

David Spence said...

Michelle Wolf tells you what female leftists truly believe about conservatives, Republicans and anyone other that leftists-they don't disagree with you, they don't dislike you, they don't oppose you. They truly believe with every fiber of their being that you are deplorable, that you are evil and that all of you need to be exterminated and wiped from the face of the earth, just as the Nazis exterminated the Jews. There is no difference in the level of hate and vitriol displayed here. It is poorly disguised as as "comedy," but if you truly listen to this vile bitch, you know that if she were able to kill you without recourse she would do it and everyone sitting there laughing along would do the same. Things are getting damn serious-forewarned is forearmed..

Ares Olympus said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sam L. said...

Feminists seem to be totalitarians. Any woman must be 110% with them, or they're HORRIBLE ACCOMPLICES OF THE PATRIARCHY.

"
Peter Baker
✔@peterbakernyt

Unfortunately, I don't think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight." Insert
"; instead, we buried it in dung" before the period.

Ares Olympus said...

It is hard for me to see where to draw the line, except to consider that whatever you say, even in humor, says more about you than about your target. So what do you really want to expose about yourself? How alienated are you from your own vulnerability?

David Spence wasn't attacked himself, but he is clearly taking it very personally and he imagines homicidal desires on the Left against him personally, just for his beliefs. I have a hard time imagining she is interested in literal murder, but maybe that's accurate as truthful hyperbole.

Maybe I'll get my own MAGA baseball hat to see what its like. How much open hostility will come my way because of a harmless political slogan?

Deana said...

I have worked in three different fields in 28 years. There were two women who did so much for me professionally - they made me better at what I did.

But the greatest amount of stress and frustration I have experienced professionally has, without exception, always come from women. There is something so strange about working with women, particularly in female dominated areas.

A couple of years ago I remember listening to an account by a woman who had been held prisoner by ISIS. Of course, ISIS had female prison guards, enforcers, etc. I remember the former prisoner commenting that it was the women guards who were the worst. Somehow I don’t think that is peculiar to ISIS - I think it is something common to many women.

northierthanthou said...

I'm just waiting for anyone on the right to hold the President to the standards they've applied to Wolf.

...even a portion of those standards would be an improvement!

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

So much fear. I sense we are witnessing a great unmasking of totalitarian ideology masquerading as “smartness.” It’s simply groupthink. The White House Correspondents Association is an elite organization of parrots, and they cannot see it. They’re making fools of themselves. I’m enjoying all this immensely. The pretense of objectivity, education and hard work is remarkable. They’re simply parrots. As for the veneer of activism for women’s issues, it’s all rank peer pressured keep this feminine monolith in line. All while the majority of white college-educated women voted for Trump, but that doesn’t matter, as white journalists talk of how stupid white people are. It’s all images, chanting and repetition. At least their friends enjoy it al. Always remember: they KNOW they’re smarter than you. Yeah, You just keep believing that. Here, sweetie... enjoy another cocktail. Read your talking points.

Ares Olympus said...

Deana, I'm sure many women are not psychologically self-aware enough to make good leaders, even if the same is true of many men as well. Maybe more of the ambitious men are better leaders than the most ambitious women? The cream doesn't always rise to the top.

David Frum perhaps points out that Trump fights like a woman, saying this about Carly's appearance, and comparing a worst picture of Ted Cruz's wife to his wife in a glamor shot. I know, the difference from Wolf is that Trump is just kidding around.
“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! ...”
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/712850174838771712

IAC, Taibbi agrees with you, the WHCD should be history, unless we agree it's purpose is to prove free bottom feeding hate speech is alive and well in well-dressed America.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/taibi-michelle-wolf-slays-useless-white-house-correspondents-dinner-w519682

Ares Olympus said...

IAC: "All while the majority of white college-educated women voted for Trump..."

I checked your claim. This is just an exit poll, so there could be other numbers if you'd like to share.
https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls
White college-grad women: 51% Clinton, 44% Trump
White non-college women: 34% Clinton, 61% Trump

Anonymous said...

My first job at Great Lakes was "Typist". Behind a locked door w/8 Black women & Black female Supervisor.

I ramped up my sychophantic charm. Even wrote Blues lyrics. Took the crummiest folders. It worked. No problems.

OTOH, later. 2 women tried to get me fired. One forged documents. One lied like hell.

I sleuthed. Both were "let go".

In my experience, most lower level women are generally amiable if you are.

GS 11s+ and female officers are dangerous. That surely applies elsewhere. Whew. -- Rich Lara