Hillary or Bust

Well, we are officially living in the United States of Bizarroland. In a year in which we should by all rights be inaugurating our first woman president, Ms. magazine, which used to be the go-to mag for all things feminist, has turned into a fawning teen rag ala Tiger Beat. With an inaugural issue featuring Barack Obama as the feminist Superman (oh, the irony), Ms. has officially lost any clout as the magazine for thinking feminists. It is clear, from this cover, that the backlash predicted by Susan Faludi so many years ago has done its work. Now women who call themselves feminists can’t even see the irony in honoring the male candidate that beat the woman candidate for president through blatant voter fraud and massive sexism.

For those of us real feminists, 2008 was a horrific year in which the best and brightest women politicians in America were smeared and laughed at, while a junior senator with little experience and hardly any real accomplishments to his name sailed through to the presidency thanks to a fawning media, when by all rights he should have been Hillary’s VP.

To top it all off, this same man spurned a woman as his own vice president pick, instead choosing a white male from the establishment, who is best known not for his feminist leanings, but for his “off-color” (read: offensive) comments. Biden is the guy who said you knew lots of immigrants from India were around, due to their presence in 7-11s and Dunkin Donuts, remember?

So what has happened to the women who run Ms. magazine? Have they lost their minds? It appears that they’ve let their vaginas get the best of them as they’ve gotten caught up in their own Obamagasms.

Let’s take a good look at the imagery on this cover. It shows Obama in a Superman pose. He’s painted as heroic, with a shirt on that says “This is what a feminist looks like.” What’s next? A cover with Sarah Palin as the arch-villain, with her head shaved like Lex Luthor, and a shirt that says “This is not what a feminist looks like?”

Ah, now we know that it’s men, not women, who are here to save the day.

What is the message of the Superman mythology? Let’s recap the story a bit: We have a superhuman man, the “Man of Steel,” who saves the world. Lois Lane, normally an intelligent, independent woman and an accomplished reporter in her own right, becomes a weak-kneed little girl around Superman, losing her head everytime he flies into her life. Yet, the mild-mannered, normal, good guy, Clark Kent, receives little to no attention from Lois.

Lois, is as such, the stereotypical social climbing woman who eschews the good man in front of her for the strong mysterious hero she worships. She favors celebrity over substance, a fantasy over the reality in front of her.

A good metaphor as any for Obama, I suppose.

It became clear to me during the primaries that the reason many women supported Obama wasn’t for his actual record or day-to-day work ethic. They worshiped him because they thought he was handsome – a black George Clooney representing a mythical hero that would save them from their dull, dreary lives. It becomes clear, then, that the women who put Obama on the cover of Ms. magazine in mythic, heroic splendor, have unwittingly played into their own brainwashed fantasies of the strong man who will come to save them.

A much more appropriate and daring cover would have been a photo of Hillary Clinton as “Madame President” and the tagline – “What could have been.”

And what, pray tell, does Ms. magazine think a “feminist” does? What exactly has Obama done for women in his career, besides pushing through a controversial measure that would let babies from botched abortions die?

OK, so officially he is “pro-choice, ” but big deal – so are most Democrats. Not that Obama’s official stand means anything these days. He’s as likely to flip-flop on that as he did on FISA.

From my view, Obama has done nothing for women at all in his career. Nothing. In fact, he’s done more harm than good. He ran a campaign to destroy Hillary when he is young enough that he could have been a VP for 8 years and then spent another 8 as president. He opposes gay marriage. He appointed anti-choice Tim Kaine as head of the DNC.

THIS IS FEMINISM?

Ms. Magazine, you should be ashamed of yourselves for your cover. You’ve permanently lost me as a reader or supporter.

ACTION STEPS TO TAKE

1. Boycott Ms. magazine. Cancel your subscription and do not purchase the inaugural issue.

2. Contact Ms. magazine to complain: Call 1-800-787-1414

3. Send an email: mkort@msmagazine.com, letterstotheeditor@msmagazine.com, contentsuggestions@msmagazine.com

Ms. has officially “jumped the shark” and it’s probably a lost cause, but we do need to let these faux feminists know that they do not speak for us.

Tags: Ms. magazine

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Action, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Sexism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.