Following up on 'the first female president'

Washington Post ^ | July 4, 2010 | Kathleen Parker

[cruise_missile]

In the days since I suggested that President Obama's rhetorical style mimics feminine tropes, I've been informed of the following:

One, a black man cannot show anger in public lest he be considered an Angry Black Man.

Two, to suggest that a black man has any feminine characteristics, even when framed as an "evolutionary achievement," is to emasculate and reduce him to a figure from Jim Crow days.

These were the two most common complaints I heard in the column's wake. Some of those who wrote were polite, self-identifying African Americans who sort of agreed with my point but wanted to help me see things a different way. Others were not so civil.

...

I am proud to be Obama's cousin. But that bond doesn't blind me to his -- and our -- flaws. In my earlier column, I sought only to offer one possible reason the president is paying such a high price for his response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. American culture is complicated, and gender expectations play an important part.

[cruise_missile]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070203335.html

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The woman has lost her mind.

[cruise_missile]

She is supposed to be a conservative ya know.

[brytlea]

I always hear that but I don’t know by what stick they measure.

[Kaslin]

She did indeed and 8th cousin is no relation

[Past Your Eyes]

I stopped reading her long ago.

[cruise_missile]

Alinsky or Lenin I think is the ideal.

[OneWingedShark]

Maybe it’s a “measuring twig.”

[mylife]

What a maroon

[EGPWS]

One, a black man cannot show anger in public lest he be considered an Angry Black Man.

Obama, the semi-angry black man. Two, to suggest that a black man has any feminine characteristics, even when framed as an "evolutionary achievement," is to emasculate and reduce him to a figure from Jim Crow days.

Gosh, Obama, AC/DC??

[Cyber Liberty]

WTF??????

[skr]

What drivel.

[brytlea]

Well, they should whack her with it.

[FlyVet]

Who in that position is allowed to show excessive anger? I don't remember seeing Bush show excessive anger, regardless of the Gotcha Media's pressure on him. And, Laura Bush's demeanor was Stepford Wife-like. She knew better.

And they were both white, by the way.

[Hardraade]

Sounds like Mark Morford, minus two people’s worth of brainpower. And no, that doesn’t mean Morford has a brain.

[Mere Survival]

As my Post colleague Jonathan Capehart wrote on the PostPartisan blog — and explained to me in a telephone conversation — black men are held to a different standard than whites. They are practiced in keeping their emotions under wraps. They can’t “go off,” as some have urged Obama to do in response to the gulf oil spill.
____________________________________________________________

Yah, I’ve never heard WASP’s made fun of for emotional reticence by blacks. /sarc

What a load of horse $#!+.

[Dilbert San Diego]

How can Obama be the first female president? Chris Matthews declared that he is the last Kennedy brother. So is he an honorary Kennedy or an honorary woman???????

[FreeperDoll]

“our flaws” only flaw i see is obozo.....

[digger48]

[cruise_missile]

This article is ridiculous on lots of levels. Her stereotype's alone are absurd.

She is supposed to be a “conservative”. If she were a true conservative instead of a “winky wink” conservative she would be in big trouble with the MSM.

This is just so frustrating to read this kind of crap.

[Dr. Sivana]

American culture is complicated, and gender expectations play an important part.

Damn,she bought into the deconstructionism they taught her in Literature class. First, in standard English, the word is S-E-X, not "Gender" (unless used to denote a linguistic terms, or perhaps as a jocularity. Cf. Fowler's Modern English Usage, 2nd Edition). Second, there is nothing uniquely American about expectations regarding the male and female sex. The same folks who want to tell us that the tendency towards sexual deviancy is hard-wired in our genes also have the nerve to tell us that Y-chromosomes are just a handy hat-rack to hang some cultural expectations on.

Basic differences between males and females are evident in every higher animal. In mankind, it is present in every developed culture, though sometimes inverted when the culture is in decay (not just today, either. For instance read what Herodotus has to say about the Egyptians).

"Gender expectations" (I am employing the term as a jocularity) play an important part because men sire children and women bear them. If you get that wrong on a large scale, civilization ends.

[Kaslin]

Conservative, my foot. Who does she think she’s kidding?

[cruise_missile]

He may also be our first illegal alien president too.

[Viking2002]

This whack job needs to put down the tube of airplane glue and open a window.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[donna]

There are no conservative career women in America. They all start building a nest for their “work family” so that their “baby” (career) will be successful.

[Eagles6]

I quit reading after “by Kathleen Parker”.

[FlyVet]

Kathleen Parker is about as useful a “conservative” as Peggy Noonan. A pair of dumb-butt chameleons who can never admit they were wrong.

[Kaslin]

Excellent point

Not exactly related but

[cruise_missile]

It was like looking at a train wreck.
I just couldn’t look away.

[hinckley buzzard]

Total female confusion. Pay her no mind. She has none of her own.

[ken21]

stupid.

[cruise_missile]

Should be tattooed on her head.

[Eagles6]

;-)

[Victoria Delsoul]

Obama elected to employ a certain type of rhetoric in the Oval Office that put him in line with feminine rhetorical traditions and at odds with historical precedent and the expectations for his gender. Such a choice ultimately may prove to be a crucial step forward toward a better world. But the backlash against his rhetoric suggests we're not there yet.

Speaking as a cousin, and a not-so-sensitive columnist-citizen, I'm pulling for him to do better.

Katleen, you are an idiot, and I regret spending my valuable time reading your strange diatribe.

Obama's policies have not much to do with his rhetoric, but have a lot to do with his purposely destructive mindset and world view. Every policy that his administration enacts works to bring this country down. If you can't see the facts for what they, and instead focus on his style, you are more stupid than I ever imagined.  Live and learn, I guess.

[Kaslin]

Compare President Bush on his his mountain bike

0bam looks like a fool on his bike

[UCANSEE2]

The woman has lost her mind.

I'll tell ya, that was the best rollercoaster ride I have had in a while.

Twists, and turns, and convolutions had me dizzy.

[UCANSEE2]

Gosh, Obama, AC/DC??

Well, why do you think they called it BACK IN BLACK?

[4buttons]

"The woman has lost her mind."

I know where she can find it.

[UCANSEE2]

The Egyptians called them Eunuchs.

[UCANSEE2]

Who does she think she’s kidding?

First, herself. But she is working on others.

[UCANSEE2]

I wann thiz guy for our firss lleeeegal alien Prezz (hic) ident.

[KC_Conspirator]

Total drivel.

[UCANSEE2]

and reduce him to a figure from Jim Crow days

So... that guy on the liquor bottle was gay?

[OneWingedShark]

No... you want something more... stout.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

Her prior column made some valid and surprising points
( considering it was penned by Parker ) about Barry’s overt passivity , his lack of interest in the Gulf spill and his feminine traits.
Obviously, someone read her the riot act -
perhaps her new bosses at CNN and thus this mushy mea culpa
to her cousin.
She quotes Jonathan Capehart of the WaPo telling her that black men have to hide their emotions.
Capehart is a gay black man and he appears to be very effeminate when he shows up on MSNBC.
He is excusing Barry’s flat affect and femininelike passivity as a racial characteristic.
But, Barry is half white and that side is equally zombielike.
Barry is often devoid of emotion even when he’s
with his kids and Michelle.
The healthy father to child, husband to wife dynamic is absent with Barry.
He looks like he’s just going through the motions.
Patients with NPD are often disconnected and emotionless.
Barry’s abnormal behavior is finally being recognized
by the media , but,
it is being rationalized and covered up
instead of identified as a symptom of his Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

[cruise_missile]

“Narcissistic Personality Disorder”

I think that description is probably accurate.

[One Name]

It was blather, searching for a hard center.

I’ve not been able to find one in Obama either.

Ether and vapor and no substance.

[Kaslin]

First, herself. But she is working on others.

Fellow fools like herself, most likely

[Cecily]

Like Peggy “Swoonin” Noonan, Ma Parker put herself outside the conservative camp with her drooling admiration for the Zero in 2008. No need for real conservatives to take heed of a word she says or writes.

[Chi-townChief]

“— black men are held to a different standard than whites. They are practiced in keeping their emotions under wraps.”

That one seems to be backwards.