Remember Naomi Wolf, feminist author of The Beauty Myth? In case you don’t, here’s a November 1999 refresher from SLATE:
As Time reported earlier this week, Vice President Al Gore paid Wolf thousands of dollars a month for advice on presentation, from the tones of his speeches to the color tones of his wardrobe. The Washington Post relayed that Wolf “has long contended that earth tones are more ‘reassuring’ to audiences’ ” and that she is “the person behind Gore’s recent wardrobe change.”
Wolf’s non-sartorial advice to Gore–and to President Clinton before him, as an unpaid adviser–is even stranger. She coached each to emphasize his manly strengths, relying on hoary, tired gender stereotypes. She reportedly told Gore that he is the “beta male” who must fight Clinton’s “alpha male” for dominance. And as an adviser to the Clinton White House, she informed the president that the nation was searching for a “good-father role model” to “build a house” for the country. “I will not let anyone or anything touch the bedrock,” Wolf wrote in one memo for him. “I will DEFEND/PROTECT the foundation.” This came only three years after the publication of her book Fire With Fire, in which she savaged Republican spin doctors for positioning George Bush as “the reassuring arch-patriarch.”
Now, with a bit less misleading characterization than is customary, the Guardian places the following head and sub-head on a new Wolff article [HatTip to RealClearPolitics]:
We Americans are like recovering addicts after a four-year bender
Bush made his white constituency feel good about themselves, but no longer. Citizens are rediscovering democracy
This woman is completely clueless.
In the midst of the developing civil war in France, she thinks that Bush has lost face?
Note throughout the strange notions about democracy. Bush won elections, but the people somehow hate and reject him. Roe v. Wade was passed… but by whom?
Note also the consistent use of the term “white men” as if that were a curse.
What a nut case!
Nut case is being polite.
In Wolf’s most recent, before this article, mention in the press, about 3 years ago I would guess, she went public with a 30 year old charge against her former English prof, college advisor, or sum such, about how he made, when she was a senior or something, a rather clumsy and, then as now, pathetic pass at her, with no harassment, intimidation (other than in her self-absorbed head), or penalty to her. I forget the man’s name, quite famous literary guy though, and Wolf’s sole reason for bringing this up all these years later (she claimed, of course, therapy value) was publicity. The famous literary guy was still alive and he and his family no doubt embarrassed, for no reason at all. She is not only clueless but has used her looks to get bylines and air-headed books published all her life. Google her and I’ll bet you get the stories, as well as the several women columnists who had the decency to call her on her cruelty. I truly hope the Dems hire her some more; they deserve each other.
I’d be willing to take seriously a “second thoughts” article by a recovering Bushie if it was sincerely written. This article quite clearly is not sincere. Wolf has quite clearly been anti-Bush all along and, as such, does not have the bona fides to present herself (“we Americans are like recovering addicts . . .”) as someone awakening from a bad dream. It’s fake and disingenuous.
BTW that critic was Harold Bloom.
F.
The comment about white constituency shows where the dems are going wrong. Its part of the dem fantasy. They don’t seem to understand that most white people don’t think being white is disgusting. I don’t like it when people make smarmy remarks like that about black people, so why should white people like it. And can someone tell me why white people say it? They are white themselves and they have no intention of giving up anything. This sort of pretend self abasement does not help anyone. It does not make anyone like white people better who is racist towards them. It does not make muslims like jews, when jews say it about themselves. in fact, it is taken as evidence of their badness and at the same time of their dishonesty because they say they are no good but they don’t really believe it. At the same time all the nonwhites know that people say this kind of thing because they think they are invulnerable, so it’s really a kind of arrogance. if they really thought they could be hurt, they would not talk like this. so it means they don’t take their nonwhite enemies seriously. I didn’t like this kind of nonsense when i was a liberal, it made me cringe, and as a conservative i really can’t stand it. it does not help the liberal cause. it does not make anyone who is anti white like whites. it all seems to be a game that liberal whites play with each other. it does not seem to have anything to do with helping people.
I mean conservative as opposed to people like wolfe