GENDEROSITY

There were laughs and giggles and "oopses" and sly grins all around. After all boys will be boys and who hasn't had similar thoughts about some reporters anyway.

This week, Teresa Heinz Kerry was recorded telling a reporter to his face to "shove it." Sadly, the muted cheers from millions of women all over the world were drowned out by the cacophony of male and female voices of the media condemning her for being unladylike.

Like the lemmings they are, the media mavens will pile on Heinz Kerry for refusing to bow down and kiss the hem of their royal robes.

The age old double standard is alive and well in this campaign. As usual, it is the preferred instrument of the pious that use it as a club to force women into unnatural compliance and silence.

On the first day of the Democratic Convention, the Democratic women of the Senate were featured. Senator Barbara Mikulski outlined the important and growing role of women in politics.

On stage with Mikulski were Senators Blanche Lincoln, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Mary Landrieu, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Debbie Stabenow, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

Unless you were tuned in to Public TV or C-span, you didn't see or hear them. Cable and network, engorged with the ego of all their pundidiots, were much too busily engaged in mutual masturbation.

Bloviating their own opinions, it seems, were much more important than the women they were supposed to be covering and reported on for the American public.

Of course they could not shut out the candidate's wife because she might say something they could chew on and criticize. Sure enough following her speech they complained that she should have used her time praising "her man" instead of talking about women and herself.

In case you missed it that part of Teresa Heinz Kerry's speech to the Convention is pasted below. Read the rest at: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9257878.htm?1c

"I have a very personal feeling about how special America is, and I know how precious freedom is. It is a sacred gift, sanctified by those who have lived it and those who have died defending it. My right to speak my mind, to have a voice, to be what some have called "opinionated," is a right I deeply and profoundly cherish. My only hope is that, one day soon, women -- who have all earned the right to their opinions -- instead of being labeled opinionated, will be called smart or well-informed, just as men are.

"Tonight I want to remember my mother's warmth, generosity, wisdom, and hopefulness, and thank her for all the sacrifices she made on our behalf, like so many other mothers.

"This evening, I want to acknowledge and honor the women of this world, whose wise voices for much too long have been excluded and discounted. It is time for the world to hear women's voices, in full and at last."

twanda@sover.net

2004-031

Copyright 2004 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@sover.net.