Another Letter to NPR · 12 June 2008

It saddened me to hear D**** W*** both begin and end his review of violin great Lili Haydn by emphasizing her small stature. He did not mention the equally below average body-size of Bob Dylan, nor the above average body-size of George Clinton, two of the many men whose relationships to Lili he uses to underwrite her cred as a real artist. 

Indeed, it is interesting how much of the journalist's four-minute commentary is about Haydn’s relationships rather than her work. As a cultural analyst, perhaps Mr. Was is just playing to listeners’ expectations in a culture that evaluates women for their teamwork and men for their creations.

Be that as it may, what pains me is that W** didn’t glean the basic insight that every cultural critic with eyes saw during the thankfully-ended Clinton campaign: that commentators discuss powerful women’s bodies as a way of not discussing why they really matter to us: their all-out human creativity and might.

 

Posted by (0v0)        
Categories: having a body

Comment

1. typical of male humans. makes me happy to be a donkey.

   Posted by: eeyore · Jun 12, 08:38 PM · #

2. ugh. no. sigh.

   Posted by: joy · Jun 13, 05:25 AM · #

3. Yes, NPR reporters have been pissing me off lately. We actually have to pay for this so maybe we should complain Owl. Yes, you should complain. Send them this post. You should so do it.

   But watch out, they may want you to join their team!

   Posted by: Susan · Jun 13, 06:37 AM · #

4. it’s this bad, is it? sheesh, those make me sick…

   Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 13, 12:39 PM · #

5. Chitta seems like America is still way more sexist than Continental Europe? Especially toward women with creative or political power: it becomes very important to “put them back in their place.”

   To be fair, women do it as much as men. And it’s mostly unconscious.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 13, 02:31 PM · #

6. Ok, I just got a sensitive, sincere letter back from the critic who I addressed with this letter.

   I won’t reproduce it here because it’s a personal communication, but he was super thoughtful and will probably be more sensitive to these hidden “pretty good for a girl” narratives in the future.

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 13, 02:33 PM · #

7. Yeah, yer perty smart for a gril yoosself Owl.
   Yer soo slim and trim, and golly, pretty too.

   Posted by: Susan · Jun 13, 02:50 PM · #

8. Shhhh! Dammit Susan!

   You know you’re pretty good looking,
   for a girl,
   but your back is so broken…

   From De Stijl.

   Jack’s a pretty good artist, for a boy. (I thought I could stop blogging about him. I really did.)

   Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 13, 03:02 PM · #

9. well, you know, there is some sexist shit here too, but that clip is just over the top!

   i totally agree that women do it as well. just shows how strong impact the media has on our values and ways of thinking. right now it seems that many young women have a need to think of themselves as totally in power of their situation. a big portion of denial comes with that. a denial to see and investigate power structures in our society and an unwillingness to critically review ones own behavior in the big picture.

   Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 13, 03:06 PM · #

10. So interesting, Chitta!

    My conversation with this writer fellow is about just this subject.

    Some women react to historical sexism by trying to assume the old male archetype of a hyper-independent, powerful island. But that is just appropriating the other side of an overly dualist era of gender stereotyping. Who wants to be all-powerful, independent of the big picture? That’s a hard identity to maintain too.

    We are all relational beings; and we all make choices. Both sides are true.

    My favorite is the way Karl Marx put it in 1852, in The Eighteenth Brumaire : “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”

    Posted by: (0v0) · Jun 13, 03:21 PM · #

11. that IS a hard identity to maintain too, though i’m sure that is not how these people see it. i imagine one must have some form of tunnel vision to be able to live like that.

    haven’t read it before, but that is very well put by dear old Marx, i like it. 1852 you say? wow.

    Posted by: chitta vritti · Jun 13, 03:38 PM · #

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