The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate
“An earlier version of this post incorrectly said [Kathryn] Sullivan was the first American woman to walk on the moon. She was the first to walk in space. This version has been corrected.”–Washington Post website, June 3
Out on a Limb
- “Tony Blair Says Murder of Lee Rigby PROVES ‘There Is a Problem Within Islam’ “–headline, Daily Mail (London), June 1
- “Analysis: Local Gun Suicides and Mental Health Linked”–headline, Austin American-Statesman, June 1
They Have Wings But Cannot Fly. They’re Birds That Think They’re Fish.
“Frustrations Get the Best of Penguins”–headline, Boston Herald, June 2
Don’t We All
“Teen Jocks Slow Down as They Get Older”–headline, Discovery.com, May 31
News of the Tautological
“Central Europe Hit by Floods After Days of Rain”–headline, Associated Press, June 2
Purses? Curses!
Female politicians carry purses, the New York Times spent nearly 1,200 words reporting the other day, an example of the vital role the press plays in American democracy:
When Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, represented Texas in the Senate, she had her purse trotted through the Capitol by a rotating cadre of young male aides, to some raised eyebrows:
Perhaps no model of purse, however, can signify status as much as having someone willing to carry it.
But now some version of the so-called “purse boy” is almost commonplace.
On the first day of this session, a young male aide to Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat and House minority leader, juggled the coats of female members as he tried to snap a group photo. And on the night of President Obama’s State of the Union address, Representative Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, was trailed through Statuary Hall by a male staff member holding her bag.
After expertly picking her way through the crowd, Ms. Sinema turned to her aide and asked, “Do you have all of my stuff?”
He did.
Slate’s Amanda Marcotte is angry. OK, that’s news of the tautological, but her specific complaint is that this constitutes “sexist griping. . . . The only reason to include these passages is if you believe that it’s emasculating for a man to provide assistance to a woman.”
Huh? For one thing, there’s no actual griping here. The closest the story comes is to say that at some time in the past 20 years (Hutchison served from June 1993 until this January), the practice resulted in “some raised eyebrows.”
Second, the idea that “it’s emasculating for a man to provide assistance to a woman” is so strange as to be unrecognizable. Providing assistance to a woman is compatible with old-fashioned notions of chivalry. If anything is emasculating, it’s for a man to carry a purse.
Finally why is it “sexist” for a man to gripe about carrying his boss’s purse but “liberating” for a woman to gripe about serving her boss coffee? That point illuminates the truth about Marcotte-style feminism: It’s not about equality but about female supremacy.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
