Where Have All the Real Men Gone?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2106084/

Where Have All the Real Men Gone?
Caring about the big issues is just so faggy at the RNC.

By Dana Stevens

Last night (Tues.) was a bad night for sissies at the Republican National Convention. That category would include, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger's "girlie men," but also, if I understand correctly, women themselves, all Democrats, and, by some weird leap of logic, even moderate conservatives, the very "People of Compassion" last night's lineup was meant to showcase. In fact, to listen to the rhetoric of some right-wing pundits, Arnold—with his centrist positions on gun control, abortion, and the environment—is a bit of a pansy himself.

Gender trouble was a-bubbling in the TV coverage, with femininity emerging as the preferred metaphor for moderate political views, while manliness was associated with the, uh, hard right. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews could be heard asking Rick Santorum, "Is this a cross-dressing convention?" The meaning of the question was clear even to the famously homophobic senator from Pennsylvania: Was the GOP's manly core of conservatism donning the Lucite heels and gold lamé gown of false, "feminine" centrism in a disingenuous attempt to win over swing voters? If moderate Republicans fell for it and said "yes" to George W. Bush, would they be in for, shall we say, a surprise on their wedding night? Santorum, of course, denied it. The convention was all man. The selection of speakers from the center of the spectrum—Schwarzenegger, John McCain, Zell Miller—was nothing more than the political equivalent of foreplay, a bouquet of flowers to warm up the American voters for the real macho action: tonight's and tomorrow night's speeches by Bush and Cheney.

On Fox News you could catch an interview with Michelle Malkin, the author of the new pro-racial-profiling screed In Defense of Internment. (If I'm not mistaken, the working title of this book was Geneva Convention, Schmeneva Convention.) Malkin was so far to the right, she had Bill O'Reilly—Bill O'Reilly!—intervening to lend nuance to her views. "It grates on my nerves, this compassion day, the metrosexual makeover we're giving the convention," bitched Malkin, before going on to characterize the expansion of Medicare benefits as "abominable." Yeah, caring about senior citizens is just so … faggy. Next thing you know, the Republican party will be getting its nails done and steam-ironing its shirts. To hear Malkin tell it, the only manly men left in the party are pre-Queer Eye-makeover Republicans like Bush and Cheney, sprawled in front of the TV with an open pizza box, scratching their balls and privatizing Social Security. So where does that leave the rest of us: the girly men, the girly girls, the manly girls, and those who elude or refuse any such characterization at all?

..more..

last night's hate fest here!

exactly what this has become. i have been using the male female thing in this a long time. and i am so into just embracing the girlie man thing. as soon as i heard shnartzer mouthing it in calif started begging hubby to come over to the dem and be my girlie man. take a girlie man over a crotch grabbin man any day and if anyone is gonna be grabbin the crotch, i think that is my job.

or embrace it.

We now have a Karen Hughes who is an American citizen abuser and anything goes. That woman must have too much testosterone.

Anyway, I think the whole message is condescending, ignorant and ugly toward women.

is meant to demean and anyone who doesn't see it as such simply refuses to embrace common sense. Just because a crowd full of self important, knuckle-dragging neocons on the convention floor gives a line like that a big ovation does not mean it will play in Peoria. Stupid, stupid. But hey, at least they're showing their true colors from behind the fake centrist stage set.

Same with phrases like "don't be a pussy." It angers me that this type of talk is ok. Even the neocons wouldn't have the balls to insult someone by implying there is something 'black' or 'hispanic' about him, but it's fine to insult someone by saying there's something female about him.

they are all members of the Democratic party...you just have to look in the right places...

And this is, I promise you, from a woman who definately knows this to be fact...

is getting very, very old. When will we grow up? We are heading down a dead end road to a place called "Moran".
Too bad even the Dems have been getting trapped in this BS.