As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that.
-- David Gergen
Well, David Gergen, there are some things that you do not 'get.' Like how sometimes there's racism going on; sometimes there's well-deserved criticism; and sometimes there's insufferably arrogant male privilege going on and on and on. . .
Ever since Oprah tagged Barack Obama as "the One," the candidate has been caught on videotape flaunting his male privilege. From talking down to Senator Clinton on the debate stage, "You're likeable enough, Hillary" to invoking 19th century sexist put-downs about claws and sweeties and menstrual cycles, Barack Obama, the Arrogant One, knows all about how to put women in our place.
David Gergen, as a native of the south, my question to you is: Since we're both white, am I permitted to say that just like Barack Obama, you reek of insufferably arrogant male privilege?
Primary night after primary night, I listened to you and Anderson Cooper invoke heroic mythic terms to describe the young and noble Barack Obama, Son of Camelot. Your presumptuous nightly tales of Barack Obama, your candidate, as Noble Mythic Hero cast Hillary Rodham Clinton, my candidate, as inherently unfit, by virtue of gender, for the office and even for the contest.
I know that you and Anderson Cooper never considered for a moment that women were listening to your nightly male-centered conversations, but night after night, we heard:
Barack Obama, Noble Son of Camelot vs. Hillary Clinton, Somebody's Uppity Wife, Somebody's Bitch, Somebody's Bimbo, Somebody's Ballbreaker
When all your heroes are male, David Gergen, the terms you invoke are 'code' for reducing women to wives and bitches. It's not that women have not been brave and noble characters throughout all of history, it's just that like so many self-absorbed patriarchs in this culture, you and Anderson Cooper have no interest in straying off the well beaten traditional path of male-centered texts to seek out the untold multitude of volumes that tell a different story, a women-centered feminist story.
As a feminist native of the south, David Gergen, I 'get' that tales of women as heroes do not interest you and Anderson Cooper. And I 'get' it because primary night after primary night, you and Anderson Cooper were concerned with the primary problem of how to keep the cackling bitch from bringing your Noble Hero down to her level, a level that you and Anderson Cooper have been taught from the cradle to have the utmost disdain and contempt for.
Huff Post: On Sunday, longtime Washington hand David Gergen took umbrage with John McCain's recent attack ads, charging that the Senator was using coded messaging to paint Barack Obama as "outside the mainstream" and "uppity."
"There has been a very intentional effort to paint him as somebody outside the mainstream, other, 'he's not one of us,'" said Gergen, who has worked with White Houses, both Republican and Democrat, from Nixon to Clinton. "I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that.
McCain Ad Mocks Obama as ‘The One’ (Video)
Gender Bias Male Privilege Patriarchy Hillary Clinton Feminist Trailblazer Politics Gender News Misogyny Anderson Cooper Barack Obama Racism Sexist Media
