Letters to the Editor

• Feminist? No... Money, Fame and a Set of Cojones Doesn't a Feminist Make...

  [Read the article: Ann Coulter: Feminist wart hog]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Being a feminist has a distinctive meaning, and everyone knows it. It's disingenuous -- and frankly, demeaning to women who actually ARE feminist -- to suggest that Coulter is a "feminist."

  Feminist connotes a woman who is concerned about equal right for women, equal opportunities for women, the equality of women with men, and fairness for women.

  That is NOT Ann Coulter.

  Ann Coulter has called for the vote to be taken away from women. She has declared every woman in America who is not signed onto her conservative, bigoted, pseudo-religious agenda as a persona non grata. (Every man too, but that's not the issue.)

  This is not a feminist, or feminism, and those objectives are frankly ANTITHETICAL to feminism.

  • Making as much or more money as men does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Writing bestselling books does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Being able to indefatigably promote oneself in all media does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Being nasty in public does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Being able to outshout interviewers on TV does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Being shocking, rude, provocative, cruel, vicious, irreverent, or hostile in print or in person does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Using hair or looks or short skirts to sell one's ideas, books, or anything else does NOT make a woman a feminist.
  • Calling oneself -- or even "being" -- a political pundit does NOT make a woman a feminist.

  There have always been evil, corrupt, power-hungry, provocative, greedy people -- men AND women -- who have used others for their own personal gain.

  Perhaps because men have had more power, they might have had more opportunity to play this out in public, but history is full of despicable women who hold their own quite well among the most despicable men of history.

  To suggest that a woman -- any woman -- is a feminist because she has managed to profit off the pain of others is an insult to women, and about the LEAST feminist thing one could say.

  Is Ann Coulter scheming and Machiavellian? No doubt.

  Has she managed to put her scheming to use fattening her pocketbooks. Absolutely.

  So she's smart, I'll give her that. In the way that a con man who makes a boatload of money bilking people is "smart."

  But feminist?

  I don't think so.

  Feminism has been about providing providing positive economic and social equality for women.

  And let's face it, not only is Ann Coulter NOT a feminist, but the reception she gets tells us that we have a LOT more work to do.

  Because -- and yes, I'm going to talk about how she looks and what she wears -- if she was unattractive, no one would care what she had to say. No one would buy her books. And no one would book her on their tv programs.

  Who would care about a shapeless, unattractive middle aged woman spewing vicious partisan opinions and attacks. Who would pay for a book by that woman? No one.

  But slap long blonde hair, a curvy body and alittle black dress on same middle aged fountain of venom, and all of a sudden, it's a "commodity."

  Sex sells.

  It's not about brains, or ideas, or smarts -- if that was the case, maybe you could say she was remotely feminist.

  But no, dressing up garden variety conservative opinion by becoming an outrageous performance artist in a cocktail dress -- this is not feminism.

  So we have a LOT of work to do.

  Maybe when America's men -- and the media programming directors who book guests -- stop thinking with their private parts, and the women of America stop fantasizing about looking like Barbie Dolls instead of having something coherent and intelligent to say, someone like Ann Coulter will have no appeal, no hold, and no impact.

  Permalink Tuesday, June 20, 2006 01:48 PM

• Dear Salon and roadknight

  [Read the article: Ann Coulter: Feminist wart hog]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Dear Salon, roadnight, etc.--

  No one is saying that Ann Coulter doesn't have the "freedom" to do what she wants, say what she wants, dress the way she wants. Yes, as far as "feminism" is concerned, the full consequence of freedom of speech runs the gamut from Gloria Steinem, to Ann Coulter and everything in between.

  But noting that a woman is attempting to be taken seriously as a pundit in the area of conservative politics and religious values, but then uses a "sexy" image to sell her books and ideology is not catty...it's fact.

  Frankly, it's sexist to denounce any commentary about a woman's tactics as catty and sexist.

  Call it like you see it.

  If George Clooney wrote a book on politics, and posed shirtless in tight jeans, it'd be the same thing. He's using attractiveness or sex appeal to sell something totally unrelated.

  So if you're going to award little red stars and nods of the head, at least get it right.

  Permalink Tuesday, June 20, 2006 03:56 PM