Larry Summers is advising Obama
Larry Summers. Larry Summers. Yep, that guy. Mr. “Mommy Truck and Daddy Truck.” The former President of Harvard who was fired after saying that women are intrinsically inferior to men in math and science skills (a statement he made, by the way, to an audience of women scientists).
And lo and behold if this clown isn’t one of Obama’s advisers. Did you know that? I didn’t. I just found out about it today, from a blog post at The New Agenda.
Let’s review: Obama’s close friend and spiritual mentor for the past 20 years is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a misogynist who apparently believes that sexism doesn’t exist. Obama’s other spiritual buddy is Father Michael Pfleger, a man whose contempt for women was on full display with his hideous ridicule of Hillary Clinton. (Note that both Wright and Pfleger are admirers of Louis Farrakhan, who believes and preaches that women should be subservient to men as part of God’s plan.)
Obama is also on record with his burning admiration for John Roberts, a man who — according to his own writings — thinks women don’t deserve equal pay for equal work and that feminism creates an unfortunate drain on the nation’s supply of housewives.
Then there’s the “feeling blue” business. And the “sweetie” and “cutie” stuff. And the misogynistic undertones (or overtones, for that matter) of Obama’s campaigns against Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, especially the background smear operations.
I’m reminded of something Patsy was saying on the radio the other night, though in a different context: she was asking what it would take for people to realize that Obama is their enemy. “Does he have to say your name for you to get it? Does he have to say your first and last name for you to understand that he means you?”
I feel like asking that of all the feminists who are supporting Obama. What will it take for you to understand that he is your enemy? That he means you?
21 Responses to “Larry Summers is advising Obama”
-
Keri says:
That’s disgusting. And while I’m voting Green Party I do think Sarah Palin is qualified to be VP- I just disagree with her politics, she certainly has shown that she is more qualified than Obama. It’s a much more minor thing than what your post is about, but Obots are trying to distort the results of a PBS poll “Is Sarah Palin qualified to be VP”
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
October 12th, 2008 at 11:41 pm EST -
sister of ye says:
I realized I could never support Obama after he recruited anti-gay activist Donnie McClurkin to campaign for him. The flood of sexist rhetoric and actions have only firmed that resolve.
Obama touts his running his campaign as evidence that he can run the country. It’s telling, then, that not only does he have that unmitigated ass Summers as an advisor, women are underrepresented on his campaign staff, especially in the top positions, and paid far less than the men.
For all McCain’s political flaws, his actions belie standard Republican traditionalism. He seems to have no problem with his wife handling her own money (the source of the “not knowing how many houses he owns” – well, they’re hers). Women actually outnumber men among his top advisor, and as a whole they make slightly more than his male staff. And, of coure, he picked a woman veep.
Obama makes a big deal about being a Christian. Well, one thing Jesus emphasized is that it’s a persons actions, not words, that are the true mark of his character. By that standard, Obama falls very far short.
-
Foxx says:
The women and the “feminists” and the lesbians supporting Obama have broken my heart. What are we to do?
-
soopermouse says:
we keep shouting at them until they get it.
Alternatively, we wait until they get burned really bad and come back, tail wedged firmly between legs. -
Anna Belle says:
Wait for them to catch up, Foxx. Try to convince them in the meantime. I’ve always been in that position. Paying attention sucks, but I don’t know what else to do, ya know?
Not surprised, Violet. Good questions. I suspect it’ll take his election and his actions thereafter. I hope it doesn’t happen, but I’m a realist, so I’m prepared.
-
cellocat says:
As the graduate of a well-regarded liberal arts college, I had this idea that Harvard wasn’t too different from where I went to school. When I was in the middle of my horrified disillusionment about Obama (not that I ever liked him, but there was a period of time in which things got much, much worse) I said so to a friend who has a Harvard degree. She laughed, sighed, and shook her head, and said that there are a lot of a**holes there.
I used to think that if a person attended a liberal arts school that meant exposure to people and ideas that would prevent that person from espousing and demonstrating anti-feminist views; that, in fact, the person would be at least somewhat progressive. This is how I regarded the Democratic Party, too. I know, I shouldn’t have been so naive.
How horrible to realize that the knife is poised behind one’s back, and the backs of one’s friends and family, and everyone else with two X chromosomes or the appearance of such. And those women who support him don’t seem to realize that by driving the knife into our backs, they’re wounding themselves, too. They’re bleeding and don’t realize it. Goddess help us when they do.
-
Happenstance says:
Stand your ground. Stand strong through the election, stand strong in the aftermath (when the nonsense you’re facing now* will only intensify, as either way it will be officially “justified” in the eyes of its perpetrators), stand strong when the $#!% hits THEIR fans, and stand strong when they start blubbering and baying, “But, butbutbutbutbut he was The Chosen One-uhn-uhn-uhnnnnnnnnnnn!! Bwweee-ee-eee!!”
Then mop up their copious tears and calmly and quietly explain it all to them again, and tell them this is what pseudoprogressiveism got them…and ask them if they’d like to know what it is to stand strong together once again.
Then talk to their wives.
*Side note: I’m surprised that P Diddy is so “sensitive,” seeing as he’s a fading star of the musical genre that made “bitchez” and “hos” socially-acceptable words to describe women (including in the lyrics of his own–cough–”songs”).
-
parallel says:
“Does he have to say your name for you to get it? Does he have to say your first and last name for you to understand that he means you?”
I love this quote.
Not just in regards to Obama, but that it is so widely applicable to so many women – oh you know when my brother/father/colleague/boyfriend demeans women he doesn’t really mean it, and you know, even if he does mean it – it won’t affect good women like me ! It’s those other women that men can’t stand – those evil, shrill, cackling, castrating b*tches over there !
-
song says:
Dear Dr. Socks,
He doesn’t mean you, because your current status is dead.
I wish you were alive, because by some strange magic your
posts are always, so current in spite of your current status.!!!
As for me, and Mr. Obama..well, gosh, I just keep wondering how he is going to change the world when he has such a mess in his own district..know what I mean.
As for his misogyny, I believe we should change the word
to Mr. Misogyny, since there is now also, Ms. Misogyny and
Mrs. Missogyny among the crowd of Misogynistas.your friend, who prays for your resurrection..gosh what that would do for my altar..
song.
-
simply wondered says:
‘He seems to have no problem with his wife handling her own money (the source of the “not knowing how many houses he owns” – well, they’re hers).’
call me a cynical old goat, but generally when partners have lots of property in the other’s name it’s a tax dodge. i’d think that if it was a man or a woman, a republican or a democrat – it’s just one of them rich-folk things (i have never yet forgotten how many houses i own). not generally open to the rest of us as we don’t actually have anyhthing to split. although as a british taxpayer (ok not for a few years…) i now seem to own loads of banks, so if anyone wants to put one of them in their name, feel free.
-
Lisa says:
simple, has it occurred to you that he wasn’t sure how to answer the question about how many housese because they were condos? How DO you answer that? By how many residences, or by how many buildings? If he gave an answer the media could easily call him a liar. You ARE a cynical old goat. What the heck is that supposed to mean- that the money and property is in her name for tax purposes? The property is in her name because she is rich, she is a superior business woman, and they are hers.
-
anna says:
How will McCain be better than Obama?
-
quixote says:
Anna: McCain might be better than Obama because people, like the feminists Dr. Socks mentioned, don’t fool themselves into believing night is day and down is up. Lying isn’t so good, but lying to yourself is lethal.
The other reason he might be better is that Congress will work against him, so he won’t get a heap done. Obama will get every faith-based BS, every coal gasification plant, every single asinine bit of crap he wants. Sure, it’s less asinine than McCain’s, but if Obama gets most of his, whereas McCain gets almost none of what he wants, we may actually be less far in the hole with the Rethug.
It’s a weird, weird, weird, weird world.
-
Kiuku says:
“How will McCain be better than Obama?”
Sarah Palin.
He is also on record for considering Meg Whitman, the founder of Ebay, to head his finance program.
-
Gayle says:
Ahh. Someone else noticed.
I saw his pudgy, ugly mug on TV the other night shilling for Obama’s economic plan.
He’s a flat out misogynist and no one in the press even questions it. Ugh.
-
sam says:
“Does he have to say your name for you to get it? Does he have to say your first and last name for you to understand that he means you?”
I’ve been thinking on this point regarding my activism lately, so it’s interesting you and Patsy came to a similar place from another path.
Right now where I’m at with it is there’s a social caste called Women which individual women separate themselves from psychologically. They see what men think of women and few want to believe men think the same about them. My adolescence was spent mistakenly believing I was the exception to the rule, but this did not mean I able to identify the rule as “Women are stupid whores who get what they deserve” until later.
I’ve been calling the phenomena “The AnonyWhore Principle” the past few weeks. By that I mean the psychological splitting that occurs when individual women see the anonymous women in pornography abused, belittled or treated inhumanely by men but reassure themselves they are not the target of the misogyny, that the misogyny begins and ends with the anonywhore only and is no reflection of what men think of her existence as a woman.
When men put pictures of twenty anonymous women on a website titled “Dumb Cum Dumpster Whores” it is ignored by women and feminists as just another day in the life o’ web porn, just the way porn is so no point in calling attention to it. Replace those twenty fake names (there is no woman really named Yeasty McTwat) with the names of twenty non-anonymous women- say Sarah Palin or Jade Raymond or Jessica Valenti – and suddenly it’s not just another day in pornville but a newsworthy Issue, a terrible sexist attack that demands redress. Pornographic sexism directed at game producer Jade Raymond is considered a wholly different beast than sexism directed at dumb cum dumpster whore Jade no-last-name.
The recent creation of the term “revenge porn” is meant to distinguish pornography in which men seek to ‘get revenge on’ one woman individually as opposed to regular pornography in which men use anonywhores to ‘get revenge on’ women as a social class. It’s not you to most women until it’s their first and last names explicitly said.
I transplanted from third wave to second wave when it finally sunk into my head that the way men treated anonywhores in pornography was really disgust and contempt aimed at femininity, and as a woman I am a bodily form of the generic femaleness men get off on reviling as weak, wet, and inferior.
-
tinfoil hattie says:
Whew! Sam! AWESOME comment. My head is reeling. WOW.
-
Lisa says:
Sam there sure are a lot of “feminists” that need to read that post. Excellent.
-
octogalore says:
From this article (http://www.boston.com/news/loc.....draw_fire/):
“However, the problem of women in academia is one that Summers is confronting in his role as university president. The percentage of tenured job offers made to women by the university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has dropped dramatically since Summers took office, prompting vigorous complaints from many of Harvard’s senior female professors.”
” Summers said, ”It’s possible I made some reference to innate differences. . . I did say that you have to be careful in attributing things to socialization. . . That’s what we would prefer to believe, but these are things that need to be studied.”
Summers said cutting-edge research has shown that genetics are more important than previously thought, compared with environment or upbringing. As an example, he mentioned autism, once believed to be a result of parenting but now widely seen to have a genetic basis.
In his talk, according to several participants, Summers also used as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral parenting. Yet she treated them almost like dolls, naming one of them ”daddy truck,” and one ”baby truck.”
It was during his comments on ability that Hopkins, sitting only 10 feet from Summers, closed her computer, put on her coat, and walked out. ”It is so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way,” she said later in an interview.
Hopkins was the main force behind an influential study documenting inequalities for women at MIT, which led that school’s former president, Charles M. Vest, to acknowledge the pattern of bias in 1999. A member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, she is also a Harvard graduate.
She doesn’t argue that there can’t be any differences between the abilities of men and women, but she said there is vast evidence that social factors do affect women’s performance. For example, she mentioned studies that indicate that women score higher on math tests if there are fewer men in the room while they are taking the test.”
Hmmm, doesn’t leave me filled with confidence in how women’s issues will be handled in an Obama administration.
-
Violet says:
I’m proud to note that Nancy Hopkins is one of the co-founders of The New Agenda.
If you recall, a lot of idiot men and patriarchy-enabling women criticized her for walking out on Summers. They said she was just proving that women are too emotional to deal with “hard scientific evidence.” (By the way, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that Summers was talking out of his ass — there is no hard scientific evidence that females are intrinsically inferior in math and science.)
Can you imagine if Nancy were a black man and Summers had been yammering about the innate inferiority of black people in math and science? Would anyone have criticized her for walking out? Would people have said that her exit just proved that black people are too emotional to do science?
-
octogalore says:
That is great to hear, I did not know. She’s a prof at my alma mater and a great role model. Her report on the inequities there also made her unpopular — but she got things done and made people listen. It’s sad that even other women at the university avoided her because she wasn’t cool or popular. Sound familiar?
And your point in the last para is very well taken.
