First Lady a Feminist?
Whaaa?
No, I’m not joking. Apparently Laura Bush has recently been dubbed by some as “the feminist with a velvet hammer.”
Whaaa?
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Read the article and tell me what you think.
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"She prefers to play cheerleader for her husband and refrains from disclosing her own views."
Yeah, a real kick-ass feminist... If she were, she'd have long ago told her husband to shove his Global Gag Rule up his ass.
Well, the first sentence goes into her being a "librarian-turned-US-First-Lady," which only serves to remind me that she's a shit librarian too. So, I don't trust her principles at all, and this article has given me no reason to change that opinion.
Overall, given a choice, I guess Imna opt for "cry" on account of this sentence:
"She's shining a light on inequality among women living in traditionally male-dominated cultures." spoken as tho from the vantage point of a traditionalist egalitarian utopia.
I cry.
What the hell is a velvet hammer?
I've heard of using the word "hammer" metaphorically and expressions like "Iron fist in a velvet glove," but what kind of sad-ass bastard metaphor is "velvet hammer?"
Laura Bush = Feminism
the same way that
Disney = Menstruation Education
Well, in the only context in which I've heard "velvet hammer" used, Laura Bush could not, by virtue of her sex, have one.
Velvet Hammer is almost as confusing as the "Desperate Housewife" reference, whatever that strategicly placed pop-culture reference was supposed to imply.
That article is ridiculous. It's nice and all that Laura Bush wants to improve the condition of women living in other countries - but what about the condition of women HERE? What about 82% of American counties lacking an abortion doctor? What about women getting paid less on the dollar than men?
I'm not saying that American women have it rougher than women in South Africa - I have no idea what the situation IS for women in South Africa. But I do note that Americans - particularly Republicans trying to humanize their party - like to point the finger at "Third World" countries for human rights violations while ignoring our own.
And let me just say that when she came out against the Taliban's treatment of women post 9/11, I was furious. Amnesty and NOW had been screaming about that treatment since the Taliban took control in 96 or 97. We didn't go into Afghanistan, or into Iraq, to save women. W. doesn't give a sh*t about women. Laura Bush's statements on that were a sideshow to gain sympathy for the war.