Thanks, but, We'll Take It From Here...

Frank Bruni of the NYT tries today to defend "girl power". Trouble is, he's not a woman, and he seems to think that getting a new toilet closer to the work floor is progress.

Mostly, I disagree that Nancy Pelosi is representative of the typical American woman, or should be even.

On Monday, photos with a winners-and-losers article on the Web site Politico showed President Obama, John Boehner, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell — but, tellingly, not Nancy Pelosi. Like women in general, she was sidelined through much of the mess, and while the reasons weren’t gender-related, the optics were true to a stubborn gender imbalance in the Capitol.

This is what jumped out at me when we do hear Nancy Pelosi:

"We are all privileged to call her colleague, some of us very privileged to call her friend. Throughout America, there isn't a name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect, more wishing for our daughters to be like her, than the name of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Thank you, Gabby, for joining us today."

Pre-tragedy, this might have held true.
No doubt, Nancy was spinning from way back when, when the shooting occured, and little Christina Green was there, waiting for her chance to greet the Congresswoman, when she was killed. Much talk then about Christina wanting to grow up to be just like Gabby. But now?

No. I understand what she meant to say, but it jumped out at me. Like Pelosi's just tone deaf. (akin to those "clinging to their guns and Gods" comments the pre-president made in SanFran way back when...)

No, Rep. Pelosi. Nobody I know wants, for their own daughters, that they get shot in the head and survive just to become a household name. Does anyone want that for their own little girl (or boy)?

No thanks. Not like that.

See, this is the problem with elevating victims into heroes. She is known now, not for being a great congresswoman who delivered in her job, but rather, for being someone who survived a tragic shooting and survived. A survivor.

That's great and all, but again, let's aim higher for our daughters. Let's not hold them out as "the first yadda yadda" or "the woman in the mix, artificially inserted because we've got too many white men in these roles already." (a'la Christine LaGarde, who's now got investigation troubles of her own.)

Personally,
I'm convinced that when the post-Hillary, post-Boom Title IX generation comes to the fore -- as they are beginning to do with conservative candidates like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann -- only then will we see a generation that wasn't raised to think of themselves as special based on their sex/gender.

No, this latter generation came up, not in the days of woman-quotas for all things from higher ed to corporate offices, but in the days of... (wait for it ... ) EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.

Meaning you didn't get awarded something special for being a woman, or girl. (think Susan Estrich's career arguments) Just an honest shot at competing honestly alongside the guys in the classroom, on the final tests, and on the athletic field in comparable sports. (None of this: stretching and dance for the girls while the fellas learned the sporting rules.)

Girls learned the rules, learned to win, to lose, and most importantly: to compete.

I think, personally, that's the main difference that explains ... Ann Althouse, say, and others coming up, who don't have the luxury of seeing themselves as "different" from their peers solely because they are a woman.

So thanks for the attempt on the assist and all, Frank; you mean well, surely. But I'm not so certain that, in the long run, playing the "female" card is going to help, and I know for certain that touting Nancy Pelosi as an accessible role model is not the way.

We'll take it from here...

Signed,
Women of the Up and Coming Generations.

Play Hard. Play Real...
Remember, there's no "I" in team, but there is one in "WIN".

ADDED:
The saddest spectacle in the whole "cheer up about the debt ceiling thing, Gabby's in the House!!" thing to me was the role of Fla. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who had to make it like she was a .... "best friend of the victim" thing, who "escorted" her onto the House floor that night, despite the fact that the woman's husband was there too. Getting you to associate her with Gabby's tragedy. (We're both women serving -- it coulda been me!)

Horning in on personal tragedy, and triumph, a little too closely, if you ask me. Just do your jobs to the best of your intellectual abilities, and stop focusing on the superficial details. Sadly, much has been taken away from Giffords now, in her quest to be the best. She's sadly more limited now than before Loughner put a bullet in her brain. Alive yes, but lesser. Is it wrong to observe that? Or should we be pushing this lady for a higher post when/if she does come back to her governing career?