Image viaDear Mike Huckabee,
I'm a sucker for good manners. Sadly, they're becoming less commonplace every day. However, old fashioned etiquette is one thing, exploitative showboating is something else entirely.
Yours very truly,
Laffy
The New Republic's interview with Huckabee about how he sees female political opponents went a little something like this:
“I’ve twice run against women opponents, and it’s a very different kind of approach,” he tells me. Different how? “For those of us who have some chivalry left, there’s a level of respect. ... You treat some things as a special treasure; you treat other things as common.” A male opponent is “common,” a woman requires “a sense of pedestal.”
What the hell is a "sense of pedestal"? Anyone?
Maybe HuckaRelic will put it another way:
“I’ll put it this way,” Huckabee says. “I treat my wife very differently than I treat my chums and my pals. I wouldn’t worry about calling them on Valentine’s Day, opening the door for them, or making sure they were OK.”
Aww, how touching. How caring. How... anachronistic. Women are... special. Delicate. Needy. Require assistance. And clearly congregate in binders. Women shouldn't be treated like "chums and pals." Which means that hanging out at a ball game guzzling beer together (from what my Tee Vee Machine tells me, that's an ultra-chummy guy thing to do) or sharing a Hungry-Man Frozen Dinner is completely out of the question. And don't get me started on tête-à-têtes about Cialis.
(By the way, Huck, some men do call each other on Valentine's Day or check to make sure their significant male other is okay. But that's another post for another day.)
Apparently, HuckaFossil also doesn't feel that women can or want to open their own doors. Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate politeness like nobody's business, and there's a certain charm to conventional "treat her like a lady" behavior. But some of Huckabee's "protective" instincts telegraph less formality and thoughtfulness and more moth-eaten patronizing and moldy condescension.
It gets even worse via another tidbit from Salon:
“I believe in equality [!!! huhwha? !!!], and I have a record of transforming that belief into action... However, equality doesn’t mean sameness... I still will invite a lady to go first, will open a door for her, and will place her in the center of the photograph. And yes, I would seek to treat a female opponent with the same respect I give to all women, even though we may disagree on the issues.”
Respect is one thing. Arrogance is quite another. So is hypocrisy. Remember this? "Uncle Sugar" Dems give birth control to women who can't "control their libido" quote?
If the Democrats want to insult women by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it. Let us take this discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be. And women across America need to stand up and say ‘Enough of that nonsense."
That's about as respectful as an Ann Coulter CPAC speech.
Now if you'll excuse me, I simply must step down from my "sense of pedestal." It's cookie-baking time and I need a moment to remove my high heels and don my apron.
The post Huckabee on how to treat women: "Place her in the center of the photograph." appeared first on The Political Carnival.
