FIRST LADY FANTASY

Nation writer Katha Pollitt opines on the rough and tumble treatment the press has been giving Howard Dean's wife:

What if the media tried on for size the notion that having an independent wife says something good about a candidate? For example, maybe, if his wife is not at his beck and call, he won't assume the sun rises because he wants to get up; maybe, if his wife has her own goals in life, her own path to tread, he won't think women were put on earth to further his ambitions; maybe, if he and his wife are true partners--which is not the same as her pouring herself into his career and his being genuinely grateful, the best-case scenario of the traditional political marriage--he may even see women as equals. Why isn't it the candidates who use their wives to further their careers with plastic smiles and cheery waves who have to squirm on Primetime?

Click here.

The truth is that the role that presidents' and presidential candidates' wives are expected to play is downright sexist in nature. First ladies and would-be first ladies must be June Cleaver if they don't want to be savaged by the press. The fact that this kind of woman no longer exists, if she ever did in the first place, is an irony that seems to be unappreciated by the media and politicians alike.

Remember how Hillary Clinton's strong ability in the public policy arena and her willingness to use it drove Republicans and the press nuts? In order to see her husband reelected, she was forced to fade into the presidential background, serving tea and cookies, thus satisfying the Taliban-like imperative of American gender conformity. And that's what's really on the line here: American gender conformity. If the President is the ultimate alpha-male, the ultimate symbol of masculine power and control, then his wife must also reflect this deeply patriarchal notion. That is, the first lady must show both subservience to and dependence on her husband-ruler.

It's quite disgusting that this concept is in play in 2004, but what's really mind-boggling is that so few seem to openly question it. I guess that liberals fear being branded "femi-nazis" or its equivalent; conservatives don't seem to think it's a problem.

Personally, I think a weak-willed, subservient wife means that the husband must have some control issues, but then I'm not a psychologist, either.

Thanks to Eschaton for the Nation link.

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