Hell Hath No Fury
Writing by treason on Friday, 27 of January , 2006 at 5:32 pm
Yesterday was an important day in history, but if you were watching the news you might have missed that. President Bush conducted a press conference, but few people know why or what was said. They do know that a camera came loose during the event and dangled precariously over the heads of reporters. And they know that Oprah got upset.
After encouraging her fans to run out and buy James Frey’s book to help it become a bestseller and, after calling Larry King when the ensuing “scandal” associated with the work broke to say that it shouldn’t matter because it was still a good read, Oprah has suddenly put it reverse and altered her story. Frey was back on her show and she confronted him, wanting to know why he lied to her. She had been…duped. Duped. Gee, where have I heard that before?
Oh, yeah! Hillary just said recently that she’d been duped, too. The world’s most brilliant woman, duped by the world’s dumbest cowboy: George W. Bush. How is that possible? But then you have to remember Bill. Like Oprah, Hillary was quick to defend her man. And then in her memoirs she wanted to know why, why had he done this to her?
Another woman scorned, Maureen Dowd, was on MSNBC last night to complain about those liars, Bush and Cheney. When Bill Clinton’s name came up, she explained that what Bill did was different. Those were little lies and, because he wasn’t a good liar, he gave us little clues that he was…well, not lying, but not telling the whole truth. It was “poignant,” she said. Endearing. Charming.
Really? Proof that no matter how brilliant, how well-educated, how wealthy, successful, influential, or powerful a woman is, she is still going to be duped by a man. Gosh, maybe my Democratic friend knows what he’s talking about when he says America won’t vote a woman into the Oval Office.
Go ahead and add Cindy Sheehan to that “woman as victim” list. Oh, poor Hillary. Bill humiliated her - after all she’s done for him. Oh, poor Oprah. Betrayed. Poor Maureen - men just keep deceiving and disappointing her. Stop your sobbin’ - I’m not buyin’ what you’re sellin’, sister.
The whining and hand-wringing is just so unbecoming. I’d just settled in to watch Molly Ivins on why she won’t support Hillary in 2008 (yeah, sure, Mol) because she dodges and weaves. Huh? She and her co-President have made their careers doing that - now it’s suddenly an issue? Puh-leez. But I never got to hear Molly because C-SPAN decided to switch to a live conference with Families USA. Ugh, more women, and they were there to do one thing: whine about Wal-Mart. Say, did you know that millions of women are raped and murdered in Wal-Mart parking lots and Wal-Mart just doesn’t care? Wal-Mart hates women. It would explain why so many flocked to the new store outside of Chicago to apply for jobs there. Girls just want to be abused, I guess.
Makes me want to run out and buy Kate O’Beirne’s new book: Women Who Make the World Worse and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports. I like Kate - she’s no whiner. National Review was kind enough to include a piece of the book in the current issue; it’s the part that discusses the myth of “fifty-nine cents for every dollar.” Women have complained for years that they do the same jobs and make less than men. O’Beirne lays out why this is simply not accurate. There are many reasons, but a few stand out. For instance, if this is a true statement, how is it that a man can find a job in this country? Most of the companies I know are always eager to pay an employee as little as possible, so if women are that big a bargain, why hire men at all? Shoot, they cost too much, the brutes. Another is that women choose the wrong majors. Okay, wrong isn’t the correct word for it, so let’s just say men choose more “marketable” majors.
Oh, is that whining I hear? Okay, let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. Allow me to play the victim. I studied unmarketable fields at a tiny university that was virtually unknown outside academic circles. I chose the campus because the area was just so pretty! There were trees and rain and fog and wonderful Victorian houses. I’ve managed to hold jobs in which I was both paid less than my male counterparts and paid more. Just different circumstances. When I got tired of making a moderate salary in a “creative” atmosphere, I turned to high tech. It made sense since I was living in Silicon Valley.
I applied for a job in an industry I knew nothing about. After extensive pre-employment testing and interviewing by several male engineers, I was certain that my performance had disqualified me. Yet these men, despite my lack of technical knowledge, gave me an opportunity. When I asked how it was possible that I was hired I was told they “liked the way my mind worked.” In a few months I was promoted to a lead position and eventually became a supervisor. In meetings I was usually the only woman in the room. I was paid less than some of the male supervisors, and I was paid more than some others. Different circumstances.
Could I have had the top rung of the corporate ladder? No! No, a thousand times, no! Why? Because of events that were totally out of my control. It all started in elementary school, you see. The Chicago public school system hired teachers who assigned students to seats according to height and by the first letter of a student’s last name. I was tall and my name was towards the end of the alphabet. I was always put near the back of the room.
It all started there. I couldn’t see the board. The teacher would write math problems on it and ask us to copy and solve them. I couldn’t see the numbers, but my classmates - nurturing, caring, sensitive little girls - whispered numbers and I wrote them down. My math skills were fine, but I always failed the tests. Turns out the little girls were giving me made-up numbers. How cute and creative they were!
Once I discovered this, I talked to my teacher and explained that I couldn’t see the board. My classmates gave me the problems, but the numbers weren’t accurate. If she checked the math, she’d see that my answers were correct. She told me she wouldn’t - she was too busy and couldn’t be bothered. Her advice: Get glasses.
Why, that would require time and money. My mother, who always had perfect vision, simply could not understand why my siblings and I were so blind. Our myopia was clearly my father’s fault - she could see, my father was paralyzed without glasses. Two of my sisters were treated shabbily because they “took after” my father. They looked like him and his family, English and Dutch. Why, they just didn’t look Italian.
Teachers wondered why girls with genius IQs weren’t doing well in class. Well, they couldn’t see, either. If a book or paper was right in their faces, they were fine. Naturally, we all excelled in any subject that required reading. If we could hold a book, fine. If it was on a board…problem.
Glasses were not a priority. My mother was more concerned with rent, food, clothes. Hmmm, perhaps she should have chosen to mate with someone who had better vision. So, let’s analyze. If I had had a better start in math, I would have been more interested in engineering, medicine, science, architecture, computers. Instead, I drifted into studying the non-marketables. I was a victim of the women I was surrounded by: nasty little girls, indifferent teachers, and a mother who resented any traits her children didn’t inherit from her.
My mother, my teachers, my little schoolmates. They shoulda looked out for me a little bit. They shoulda taken care of me - just a little bit. You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contenda. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am. Let’s face it… it was women. It was women.
It has nothing to do with choices I’ve made. It’s simply not my fault, don’t you see?
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