Faux Real

What you should read since I’m not writing:

• Seeing Red - How many inane pieces on the meaning of clothing should we expect this primary season? “Perhaps what got my blood boiling more than anything about this exchange was the assumption that Barack Obama wants his wife to take on a Nancy Reagan-esque role…”
• Barack Obama Is Not Jesus - “But he’s not Jesus! He’s not going to magically enable us to transcend the bitter partisanship that is tearing this country apart. And even if he is elected, in no way will that show that somehow we have ‘gotten beyond’ race.”
• Who’s Your Mommy? - Our ideas of powerful women tend to be based on mythology (Echidne, ahem) or on the very few women who stick out in the history after most women have been carefully nailed down into its background. So we are told about Joan of Arc (who got burned to a crisp)…
• Hillary and the Feminine Gaze, Up Close and Personal - “Reading through these pages, I wished for a companion volume, Thirty Ways of Looking at Women Looking at Hillary, which answered this question: Why do so many of these women writers — who have shown themselves to be graceful essayists and well-reasoned a
• Taking a Moment - I thought, “Am I really about to do this?” Then, still staring at her name, I picked up the pen, whispered, “I’m sorry” under my breath, and voted for Barack Obama.”
• The Unapologetic Mexican: Change and Sway - “Sure it gets eighty miles to the gallon and looks beautiful and is cheap. But it has 15 inch tires, like my old one! 16 inch tires would make it perfect. No way. I’m keeping my old car.”
• On Connections - What a beautiful compliment. Thank you.
• Bitch Ph.D. - Historically, women achieve power (even in representative democracies, but well before representative democracies: think of Queen Elizabeth, for instance) on the coattails of their fathers or husbands. Benazir Bhutto and Corazon Aquino were…