Friday, June 11, 2010

New Rules of Feminism - Addendum

In case you missed the original change in rules, look here:

New Rules of Feminism

Now, "rich businesswomen" (as the L.A. Times refers to them) Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have won Republican primaries and are taking on incumbent Democrats (Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, respectively) in my State of California.

The L.A. Times already revealed how it wants us to perceive these women. Of course, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer aren't exactly poor. Boxer started out as a stock broker and married a very successful lawyer and lived in the very rich Marin County, Ca until 1994. Yet I have never seen her referred to as "rich".

Meg Whitman arguably has a more impressive background. She worked her way up the corporate ladder before marrying a successful neurosurgeon. She comes across as much more of a self-made woman than Boxer. She's rich because of her own doings.

But of course, media pundits refuse to see her as a feminist because of that (R) next to her name.

Tina Brown Slams Female GOP Primary Winners

Carli Fiorina has a similar story. Starting out as a secretary, she worked her way up to becoming CEO of Hewlett Packard. This was at a time when a female CEO of a hot tech company was unheard of. If only she had been a Democrat, she would probably stand above Hillary Clinton as the benchmark feminist that all our daughters should aspire to be.

Of course, had she been a Democrat, that would mean that she didn't have the internal convictions to have been a successful CEO in the first place so it was a moot point.