"CERTAIN RESTRICTIONS APPLY"

There have been many reports in the media about the life and times of publisher, Katharine Graham who died recently. Every report that we heard lauded her for her values such as honesty, hard work and honor. They admired her for doing so much and still being feminine. "Outstanding", they called her.

They also raved about her courage, her intelligence and her abilities, stressing the fact that she had been a simple homemaker until her husband's suicide forced her into making a choice. The choice she made was to take on the job of publisher for her family's newspaper, The Washington Post.

Together with raising her three children, she ran the numbers and made the hard decisions that turned the Post into one of the most influential newspapers in the country. She came into the job with no experience but with intelligence, courage and ability. Her abilities were outstanding, we were told.

Because of what she did in the publishing field, all of the famous and near famous gathered to celebrate her life. Every talking head and newscaster paid homage to her outstanding accomplishments. Especially noted was her role in exposing two government chicaneries known as The Pentagon Papers and Watergate.

But whatever was said about her, for all the praises given, there was usually that comment that she was or remained feminine just as if that was some kind of a miracle that a female could have the attributes of a male.

When ALL of the other publishers caved in before the governmental threats of reprisal if they dared to expose the scandals, Katharine Graham backed up her editors and reporters. She alone had the guts to risk everything to do what a newspaper is supposed to do, print the truth.

Sadly, despite her stellar reputation as a publisher, her paper's success under her leadership and her stand on the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, no commentator could bring her/himself to call her an outstanding publisher. No indeed. It was always, "she was an outstanding WOMAN publisher."

Now after a week of praising Kay Graham's abilities with faint damns, our media has turned to the real world to reinforce our cultural values. "Poll finds Bush nicer than Clinton" reads the headline. This is based on Laura getting a few points (well within the margin of error) more than Hillary in the NICE category. Why is it that we never see polls about nice males?

Here are the adjectives that the poll revealed" Laura was: "nice, lady, classy, intelligent, quiet and good." Hillary was: "intelligent, smart, bossy, good, aggressive and domineering."

Not surprising, the majority of men, Republicans and whites liked Laura best and women, Democrats and blacks liked Hillary best.

Our [Vermont] State Archivist related some interesting facts about the early years when Vermont administered the death penalty and women were not allowed to sit on juries.

In the early 1880s Emeline Meaker was tried and convicted of murder by an all-male jury. She was executed in 1883, the first, and only one of two, Vermont women to be executed. "Under ordinary circumstances," argued The Vermont Watchman and State Journal, "her sex might have been her shield" from conviction and execution.

The "shield" normally accorded women did not, however, always extend to those who failed to meet societal ideals. "Mrs. Meaker," reported the Burlington Free Press, "is a most repulsive looking woman." News reports repeatedly focused on her appearance. "[P]hysically she is strong and muscular;" "her appearance indicates capacity for the cruelty practiced." She was, the drumbeat continued, "a wretched woman," an "unnatural mother," who had "for years sustained a reputation as a virago [a large, domineering woman]."
      -- excerpt From Ballot Box to Jury Box: Women and the Rights and Obligations of Citizenship, talk by Gregory Sanford, Vermont State Archivist Vermont Judicial History Society Addison County Courthouse, Middlebury June 23, 2000.

twanda@gendergappers.org       

2001-031

Copyright 2001 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@gendergappers.org.

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