Unpleasantness at the L.A. Times

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Feb 18, 2005

Charlotte Allen of the Independent Women's Forum wrote an op-ed for the LA Times on women thinkers that pushed card-carrying feminoid Susan Estrich onto the restraint-and-observation list. She vented her wrath in a barely coherent circular e-mail, to which Michael Kinsley responded adroitly:

"[Estrich] is right that we should have more women writing for our op-ed page, and she is right that I am bad about answering e-mail, although she is wrong to think that this bad habit is gender-specific. What seems to have popped her cork, however, is an article by a woman that we did run. I'm sorry that she has 'never heard of' Charlotte Allen, but I think it may be possible to be a woman even if Susan Estrich has never heard of you. Even a member of the Independent Women's Forum can nevertheless be a woman, perhaps."

For Leftists, biology is obliterated by politics, as indeed is everything else. You'll remember that Clarence Thomas (called "America's blackest baby" by his sibs) was excommunicated from his race by Toni Morrison, while Bill Clinton was hailed as America's "first black president" -- it's not a matter of genes but of convictions. By the same token, Margaret Thatcher, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Condoleezza Rice, &c., don't rate as women on the N.O.W. scorecard because of the wrong politics, not the wrong chromosomes. Support for affirmative action is what makes you black. Support for abortion what makes you female.

Were it otherwise, it would be nearly impossible for Estrich and Co. to find in their target populations any sexism or racism worthy of the name. How many in the Christian Right would yank Thomas off the Supreme Court and replace him with Lawrence Tribe out of racial pride? How many NASCAR dads would rejoice to see their own daughters turned down for a job or a college admission in favor of a less-qualified male? For bigotry to be bigotry, those in its grip it must be willing that their personal interests suffer for its sake. Some few may be enchained by this obsession, but to claim that it's widespread is absurd.

That's why you need magic spectacles to be a Leftist. The hatreds you have to spy out are invisible to ordinary folks -- it's not easy to see Clinton as blacker than Thomas, not easy to recognize Frank Rich as a real woman and Mona Charen as a fake one -- so you need the kind of lenses that gender studies or race studies departments provide. And nothing is more infuriating than when the designated haters refuse to do the hating your ideology has assigned them. Poor Susan.