Letters to the Editor
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In this case, equality for the sexes is just making this woman worse
In the heady days of the late 60s and early 70s, when civil rights was blossoming into the early gay rights and women's rights movements, some argued/hoped that granting full and equal rights and access to women in areas that had previously been primarily the province of men would transform institutions for the better. The idea was that women would bring "feminine" traits into institutions that had previously been characterized by a kind of hypermasculinity. Women were supposed to make the institutions more human and humane because the institutions would become a more balanced reflection of desirable masculine and feminine qualities. At the time, a small number of us were concerned that the power balance in the institutions would overwhelm the small number of women in positions of power and instead cause the women to simply be more masculine in their behavior.
The case of Ms. Perino is not a perfect test case, but, even so, her willingness to lie and be a water carrier for the Bush administration is a clear example that women are no less capable of perpetuating bad institutional habits and that their presence in institutions need not make them any better. Otherwise, she could never bring herself to say that paying for the war by raising taxes is some sort of an inherited moral failing in Democrats.
I simply cannot understand how these people, male or female, can live with themselves when they utter such trash. They are proof that a human can justify almost anything (lying, torture, violation of habeas corpus, etc.) to themselves if the circumstances are right (enough money or power, a particular ideology, etc.)