I guess there is no honeymoon phase for our newly elected senator (“Warren holds back with reporters,” Page A1, Nov. 12). She gave what you call “terse” responses to questions about her reaction to the fact that many women supported her and whether she intended to have a diverse staff. Perhaps it is the 1960s feminist in me, but I wonder, had her opponent won, would you have asked him about the fact that he had strong support from men or whether he would have women on his staff.
Having fought the fight more than 40 years ago to be recognized on merit not gender, I am feeling a bit terse myself.
Comments
I agree - it was a stupid queston to ask the newly elected senator. But it just goes to show - the war on women continues even in the Bay State. But I suppose we all should be grateful that she was not criticized for what she wears or asked if she dyes her hair.
It has been said that politicians campaign in poetry, but govern in prose. Unfortunately, Senator Warren’s poetry consisted of a few well-worn cliches all about working to protect “middle-class working families.” The demands of campaigning limited her to just a few brief sound-bites such as this; the good news is that it worked and helped her to get elected. Now she has to leave the safety of a few memorized quotes, however sincere, and make a shift to much broader dialog. I believe that she has the intellectual capacity to express herself quite effectively, once she masters the prosaic demands of serving in the Senate.
Nicely put! THank you for your letter. It is a little strange to see how the Globe pounced on Elizabeth Warren like this... Perhaps that reaction was out of empathy for the absolute embarrassment Republicans and conservatives have to feel, not to mention other far more negative feelings, at the trouncing the party was dealt at the recent elections...
But, kidding aside, we should indeed not be so suprised at double standards when it comes to gender. This may have been a comparatively good year for women in politics but it doesn't mean double standards are a thing of the past.
Scott Brown himself in this last campaign proved he is a closeted mysoginist--his comment regarding Warren when she had replied that she had not taken her clothes off when asked how she put herself through school or something like that, was: "Thank God!" This utterly mean-spirited and offensive retort was promptly swept under the media rug. The question had to be: Thank God for what? For the fact that she perhaps did not have the "model-like" good looks he and his family are through no effort or fault of their own benefiting from? For the fact that she is older than he is? For what exactly? That response meant that his posing nude was a gift to the world and that her doing so, for whatever small reasons his mind might have concocted, was quite the opposite. What an arrogance and bullying attitude!