There has been a lot of flack over Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, some of which is about the fact that she hasn't expressed a lot of views on many pressing legal issues we face today. But a big chunk of the talk surrounding her nomination is about her sexuality: is she gay?
First of all, homegirl's sexuality has NOTHING to do with her ability to perform as a Supreme Court justice. While I'm all for more diversity and less old white guys (and if she were out, I'd be pretty thrilled that America might be ready to accept an openly gay woman in a position of serious authority), her possible queer status has jack shit to do with her suitability for the position.
The fact that who she may or may not choose to sleep is being debated widely in the media indicates how, despite all of the advances of feminism and the women's movement, some things really haven't changed. An intelligent, accomplished woman in her fifties with short hair is not someone who just "didn't find The One;" she is either a lesbian, or undesirable. You're either Ellen Degeneres or Susan Boyle, with no gradations in between. Unmarried men in their fifties, of course, still have romantic options and possibilities, as they only grow "distinguished" with age as women grow old, haggard, dried up. Double standards, much?
Much love,
The Albright Sheriff
I read an editorial recently- I believe by the indefatigable Maureen Dowd- about precisely this issue. Elena Kagan is being branded as a spinster by the White House because that's what old white dudes are comfortable with. They don't like that powerful women can do it all on their own and don't need a man to do all the heavy lifting. I think this is reverting back to mid-century hyper-masculine thinking, and I highly disagree with it on a personal moral and feminist level.
ReplyDeleteFood for thought: The makeup of congress is still OVERWHELMINGLY OLD WHITE DUDES. It's even more pushed to the male side when you add to that count the men who are young and/or not white. Obama's people have to navigate this territory, and so portraying her in a way that makes these egotistical men with two brains- the lower one doing most of the thinking- more comfortable is going to help her in the long run. She can rebrand herself once she's on the bench. BUT in order to even get on the bench, she has to go through the gauntlet of the American judicial confirmation process, which means making the patriarchy feel like we aren't yanking the rug out from under them.
<3 Texas