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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Elena Kagan

I'm angry at journalist today for the ongoing critic of Elena Kagan's appearance and assumed sexuality. Or I should say I'm angry at entertainment news because this ridiculous criticism does not qualify for the distinguished term of "journalist".

As a full disclosure I must admit I consume entertainment news every day through E! News every day at noon, Extra TV at 4:30pm, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at 2pm, the Colbert Report at 2:30, TMZ news bytes on my iPhone and my absolute favorite Pink is the new Blog (Trent is an awesome blogger, he only reports on entertainment news and does not post a bad opinion about anyone and I love him for this). We have DirecTV at work so these may not represent my choices but are on daily at work for no other reason then to give us something to rant and rave about.

I bet your image of me has just been dimmed/diminished/destroyed. I'll try to make up for it with an angry rant about the destruction of women in the following paragraphs.

President Obama has chosen U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan as our next Supreme Court justice and the entertainment world is critical of her appearance. She's been compared to Chaz Bono and Kevin James from "King of Queens" based on a few unfortunate photos taken from below that emphasize a masculine appearance and resemblance to these two fellows (well Chaz did recently complete a transformation to be a man so thus the plural). She has short hair, is 50 and not married so the news is accusing her of being a lesbian; friends are rallying to confirm she is straight.

What is my point? I'm furious and disgusted at the attention being paid to her appearance and assumptions of her sexual preference - neither of which have any baring on her ability to judge Supreme Court issues. She should win the greatest judicial seat based on career performance.

This criticism of appearance and assumption of sexuality is personal with me. In my freshman year of high school I was bullied by a preacher's daughter for being an assumed lesbian. One day in choir class, I was staring out the window, she thought I was looking at her. She started a whisper campaign against me. Later in the day she was also in my Foods 1 class and got another bully to sing "I'm a girl watcher" to the tune of Wheel of Fortune - this same bully rode my bus and sang it every day until I flipped out and told him my brother would kick his butt if he ever sang that again. I thought I couldn't get away from this girl but finally she left mid-year, transferring because her pastor father had been moved.

I thought these things were left behind in high school. How can women come this far only to face brutal criticism for not matching societies preference for beauty? Elena Kagan has experienced the highs and lows of women rights. She's seen the Equal Rights Amendment pass in the 70's and she's now seeing the end results in the 10's that it doesn't matter how equal you are, you will still be judged by entertainment news for your appearance and assumed sexuality.

3 comments:

amanda said...

My image of you has not diminished, I'm just amazed at your bravery over sharing that. If you can keep a secret, I'm not much different, but mine are ET, People.com and I skip right to the entertainment section on MSNBC - unless there is breaking news and then, it's only because you can't help but have your eye caught by it. :)

crazywildberry said...

Sounds like your bus rides home weren't any better than mine. LOL! I hate bullying, no matter what they think their cause is. I like how you made him stop though. And I can truly see your older brother stepping up for you too. Makes me wish I had an older brother sometimes. Hahaha!

I also hate how the media gets stuck on some trivial things and blows it up. I don't like a lot that is going on in our world today, but I hate how media take something so small and spins it out of proportion.

Seeing that I don't have tv right now, I am not in this situation, but news was never my thing. I don't like the sitting-on-the-edge-of-my-seat that the media tries getting me to do. I hate the anticipation of what's coming next. :P

R. Molder said...

Thanks Amanda, you are so sweet!

Hi CWB - actually I kinda freaked older brother out by putting him on the spot but I was so pissed at that kid that he never did it again. I think guys tend to get scared when a girl/woman really flips out.