Posted on 07/19/2006 8:13:31 AM PDT by presidio9
WHY IS it that the higher up you go, the more likely it is that someone's going to call you a lesbian?
Just as with Oprah Winfrey, who recently denied rumors that she's gay, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Attorney General Janet Reno have all been subjected to speculation about their sexuality.
It just goes with the territory. Be strong. Be successful. Don't define yourself by a man and let the whispers about your sexuality begin.
This double standard toward powerful women illustrates just how much America's discomfort with the notion of females at the top continues to linger. Let a woman get too large and in charge, and you can almost predict what's coming.
Regardless as to how far we've come to terms with accepting gays and lesbians as equals, questioning a woman's sexuality is a way of taking her down a level. It's a way of saying, "Hey, you're not all that." A lot of it is plain old sexism.
"It's just difficult for some men to accept," said Rocky Twyman, a Maryland-based businessman leading an effort to get Winfrey nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"There's a lot of prejudice toward Oprah. We have a very difficult time getting men to sign this petition. We try to offset those criticisms by telling them about the wonderful things she's done to help fathers in Africa who have AIDS," he added. "She has arranged for 1,000 black men to attend Morehouse College with full scholarships."
Rumors that Winfrey is romantically involved with her best friend, Gayle King, have dogged the two of them for years. In the August issue of O, the Oprah magazine, Winfrey denies that there's anything between King and her but a platonic friendship.
"I understand why people think we're gay," Winfrey says. "There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it. How can you be this close without it being sexual?"
Most women thrive on experiencing emotional intimacy whereas some guys might derive just as much satisfaction from exchanging a few grunts with a golf buddy. Winfrey, who has a longtime romantic interest, has raised eyebrows by admitting that she and King have been known to talk four times in the same day. I say big deal. When I was single, my female friends used to call me all day long to discuss problems - or even the most trivial of matters. I didn't mind. Listening is all part of being there for your friends.
"Women talk to stay connected. It doesn't even matter what we talk about; we just need to be connected," said B.J. Gallagher, a Los Angeles-based sociologist and author of "Friends Are Everything" (Conari Press, $15.95).
Questions about Winfrey's sexuality arise partly from the fact that she talks openly about her relationship with King, as well as suspicion over her never-married status. And then, there's the fact that she's a billionaire and one of the most influential figures in the world.
"Any woman in a position of authority, we begin to call into question her feminity because we still rely on the sexist assumption that to be in control, to be in power and to be a boss is to be a man," explained Marc Lamont Hill, a Temple University pop-culture professor. "When a woman challenges that assumption... we question the woman who has to be boss. We don't challenge our own sexist notions."
In other words, it's always the other person's problem - rarely our own.
Maybe the next time people find themselves questioning the sexual orientation of a powerful woman, they should question whether it's a matter of their own prejudice.
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Why is it that whenever someone doesn't like your politics, and you happen to be a woman, newspapers call it "sexism"?
probably because alot of the "powerfull" woman act like dykes!
I think alot of women who get into management positions get bitchy.
Who suggested that Secretary Rice is a lesbian?
Janet Reno isn't lesbian?
Inconceivable!
Token Republican.
In my experience, its usually women who tag other women as lezbo.
I don't think it was Reno's position that made her appear to be a dyke. It is more likely the fact that she is as butch as John Wayne and Dick the Bruiser rolled into one that makes people think she is.
She walked through the gate I was sitting in once at Reagan National Airport with her security detail. She was as big as men guarding her - and - God forgive me - very, very homely and butch-looking.
I don't think Janet went to the prom.
"Not that there's anything wromg with that"
I don't recall Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir having that problem. Could it be unique to Leftist women, and thus be less an unfair sterotype and more the voice of experience? ;)
I agree. Its usually women who make the claim. So in a way, it really IS sexism, just not the traditional "man wants to dominate woman" crap. Its actually the progressive liberal self-hating sexism of "women can't stand to have other women in a higher position than themselves."
I thought Janet Reno's same-sex dalliances were well documented. And come one ... half of Bill Clinton's cabinet looked like an explosion at the recombinant DNA lab.
Maybe that's because it fits their conception of "power".
If you want to know what power really looks like, forget the media entirely. Anything they puff as "powerful" is sure to be anything but.
Maybe it is the way they embrace the leading lesbians and homosexuals in society, and always seem to promote that lifestyle (deathstyle). Add to that the fact that many of them look like the "Quaker Oats Man."
You're absolutely right. But that's only proof of the power of the patriarchy. They got the wimmen doing their dirty work for them. :D
"call you a lesbian"...
Why not take it as a compliment? There's nothing wrong with being one, right? It's a heroic, empowering choice more womyn should be encouraged to take...
/s
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