Turn that introspective and judgemental feminist eye inward my friend-lady, if you want to talk about vacuous and flighty sounding writing, try your own mag's woman zone:

This was right below that piece in Salon:

It also makes me question one of my long-held beliefs, which I call "The Bikini Theory" -- namely, that you should spend as much time as possible in a bikini right now, lest you look back at a photograph of yourself 10 or 20 years from now and harbor regret over letting body insecurity limit your choice of swimwear.

I don't know of any teenaged girls who think Barack is hot.

Or boys who think Michelle is hot, for that matter.

Remember, they are at that peculiar age when anyone over 25 is gross and old. There may be college-aged kids who think the Obamas are attractive, but probably not a lot of them either. Most of the Obama-swooning is undoubtedly done by somewhat older people....

Tracy-Flory, you're startin' to make me worry.

...and 18-year-old females are ADULT WOMEN, not little girls.

How is this reaction any different than an right wing kook taking something out of context? When you get squicked out maybe you should take care to note if you're projecting something pervy where their was cleary no intent...

Thanks for the link to the article though- it is interesting.

When the person responsible for setting up the discourse doesn't make it past the first sentence? Anyone else think TCF drew the wrong conclusion from the sentence she reviewed?

My take is that a woman over 40, should she so choose, can call teenagers, even teenagers who can vote, little girls and/or little boys. She's prob closer to Dame Mirren's age than 40, but all I know is that she was an editor of The Nation in the early 80s.

"How is this reaction any different than an right wing kook taking something out of context?"

To answer your question, it's not.

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To everyone in general:

I just can't wrap my head around a presumed feminist embracing the tactics of her enemies (the right wing) and attempting to manufacture outrage through ignorance. Recent posts on broadsheet have discussed blogs and bloggers where contributors' opinions have ran the gamut from "[they make us look bad]" to "[they're setting feminism back]." Is the goal equality for women? Is the goal intelligent discourse? Is the goal cluing folks in to important issues that they'd otherwise not know about? Or is it just page views?

Perhaps, the move is just to define victory downwards....you know, like the neocons?

Wypijewski's article actually seems quite OK -- politicians can always be a source of 'sexual attraction' if they are close to power (just ask good ol' Bill), and it would be surprising if Obama didn't. Even McCain probably has some effect, despite Wypijewski's opinion. I wasn't put out by the leading sentence; I wouldn't even say it was even in bad taste, only provocative (though I'd probably remove the word 'little'). So I agree: TCF has apparently overreacted at a sentence taken out of context.

I just hope this isn't an attempt to do what actually WORKED against Harold Ford in Illinois, when he was running in 2000 for Election -- they ran these TV Commercials with a "Playboy" type Model, doing a "come on" to Ford, and the message was that he had gone to a Party at the Playboy Mansion, and it was just a right-wing psy. ops tactic, a smear, but it WORKED, he lost.

All the Karl Rove types know that if a PHOTO is worth a thousand words, and will stick in Voters minds, then a VIDEO will work a thousand times better in "sticking" a negative LABEL to a political candidate. I think the first OBAMA GIRL TV Commercial was actually an attempt to do with it, what the TV commercial which sunk Harold Ford's chances did to him. It just didn't quite work with OBAMA.

I'll have to read the article, but I do agree using the term "little girls" is kindof creepy. And inappropriate. Surprised to find the "Nation" using it, maybe the author just wasn't thinking. But you can be sure, if the Right-Wing reads it, they'll for sure put their nasty slant on it! Especially sleaze-meisters like Bill Orally!

I just saw a book at The Home Depot: "How to get freaky nasty in, on, and under your new woodshop tools, and do it safely".

At 85 years old,I have been voting for so many years.I may just skip this one as the circumstances for choosing a president of what used to be the greatest nation on earth,has sadly become a monstrous joke,or "beauty"contest.The best and the brightest(one of the JFK tones)can no longer compete for the highest office. Any one who shows any promise is ruled or ridiculed out .The media has now taken over and makes up the nominees and then pushes their agenda.