The Sad Spectacle of Dee Dee Myers
Dee Dee Myers has just come out with her amusing tale, Why Women Should Rule the World. You may recall Mrs. Myers was the first female White House press secretary, appointed during the first two tumultuous years of the Clinton administration.
Simply put, Myers is a female supremacist. “Women tend to be better communicators, better listeners, better at forming consensus,†she argues. That entitles women to run the world because they do everything better than those power-hungry men, Myers believes.
As the unsmiling Myers goes about promoting her book, one wonders what led her to pen a tome filled with crude gender stereotypes and doubtful claims.
After Myers left the hurly-burly of the White House in 1994, Myers married a handsome (and well-paid) magazine executive. They moved into a tony Washington DC home and had two children together.
But 14 years after leaving her heady White House post, Myers’ career has stalled out. She has only managed to land a few part-time consulting jobs, like advising the now-defunct NBC series, The West Wing.
Hardly an inspiring role model for the female global domination wannabes.
If you go out and get Myers’ book, don’t expect to find a watertight argument.
According to Myers, women create a nurturing, idyllic work environment – well, with a few exceptions. In a 2000 Frontline interview, Myers made these remarks about her White House encounters with a devious Hillary Clinton:
“Hillary tended to kind of campaign against people behind their back, and that was certainly my experience.â€
Women are the peaceful gender, as well. To prove the point, Myers highlights on page 125 how Queen Elizabeth I arranged to have Mary Queen of Scots beheaded, Indira Gandhi pushed for a sharp increase in nuclear arms, and Margaret Thatcher went to war in the Falklands.
Women never abuse their power, either. That’s true for every woman in the world except Indira Gandhi who “used emergency provisions to grant herself extraordinary powers and quash dissent,†Myers admits.
Women are gentle consensus-builders, as well. Myers recounts the story of Alexis Herman, former Secretary of Labor, who tried her hand at resolving a labor strike. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Herman grabbed one of the negotiators by the lapels and issued this threat: “Don’t f_ck with me.â€
Perhaps we should be grateful that Mrs. Meyers does not make the claim that women are the logical sex. And some of her factual statements raise eyebrows, as well.
Myers says back in 1998 the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition brokered the historic Good Friday Agreement, a claim that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also stands by.
Unfortunately, no one else saw it that way. As Irish historian Tim Pat Coogan noted, “It was a nice thing to see [Hillary Clinton] there, with the women’s groups. It helped, I suppose, but it was ancillary to the main thing.†The Women’s Coalition disbanded in 2006 after its candidates lost in two straight elections, an inconvenient truth that escapes Meyer’s notice.
There’s this chestnut on page 56: “until recently, all the research into [heart] disease was conducted on men.†But somehow that doesn’t square with the FDA analysis that found, “women have been included in drug development studies at least since the early 1980s in approximate proportion to the prevalence of disease in them.†[www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/0412roberts.html]
And as we all know, women are victims of the gender wage gap. Want proof? When the 31-year-old Myers worked at the White House, she was paid a measly $100,000. But there was another deputy assistant, he was paid $10,000 more.
True, he was far more experienced and qualified. He took a big pay cut to come work for President Clinton. But that didn’t matter – Dee Dee was entitled to that extra 800 bucks in her paycheck.
Go call the lawyers!
Lest you suspect that Myers is totally unsympathetic to men, she proffers this reassurance on page 128: “That’s not to say women should replace men altogether.†And yes, she does thank her husband in the Acknowledgements.
See, not all men are that bad.
Dee Dee Myers comes across as a woman who hasn’t figured out whether she wants to be a stay-at-home mom or go back to being a 60-hour-a-week workaholic. So every road bump in life is blamed on the heartless patriarchy. She publishes a book filled with odious stereotypes and half-truths, and then wonders why her colleagues don’t take her seriously.
In the end, Myers’ book becomes a feminist fairy tale that provokes sadness, not outrage. In its over-wrought quest to promote female empowerment, her work becomes a parody of the very movement she has chosen to embrace.
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April 10th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Carey Roberts,
Thanks for your update on Dee Dee Myers. I had wondered what happened to her since she and a NYT reporter were interviewed by police in a car. But I would not rush to buy her book, your despription is adequate.
As to Margaret Thatcher and Falkland’s war a new Argentina’s female leader calls for Argentiana’s inalianamble right to Falklands (Called Malvinas by Spanish). It remais to be seen what she will do since the British now have a male Prime Minister.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3ac_1207230977&c=1
April 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
The best strategy for women who want to be leaders is to campaign on their ideas and their individual characteristics rather than on gender stereotypes. We all ultimately do things as individuals.
Also, man-bashing is ultimately dangerous for women because who raised those men?
April 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am
individual? whats that?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Carey this is a great piece. I recently was required to attend her appearance at the college I attend (CUNY- College of Staten Island. She began by saying she doesn’t hate men and that it was the publisher’s pressure why she chose that title, and it was meant tongue and cheek. Really, male bashing is tongue and cheek? It was the publisher’s fault. No accountability or responsibility for the title. She pattered and pandered for forty five minutes only proving she is a fulfilled with misandry. My prayers for her son- I feel sorry for that kid.
Side note, four of us wrote the administration and asked for an apology for having a sexist bigot at the campus- of course that fell on deaf ears. Make no mistake about it, CSI is an anti-male school passing itself off as higher education.
It would be great if you came and spoke Carey… .
April 12th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Dee Dee is a serious name??? I like the general idea of giving such people enough rope so they hang themselves. But there are so friggin’ many of them and so little rope.
So, I would say to Myers: “Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!” and know that Hillary, from Myers’ own account, has already done so. Vescere bracis meis.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:24 am
5, anfortas
As I have stated before, you’re among my favorite posters. I seem to recall that you’re a professor (comparing a collegue of yours).
Would it be too personal to ask what do you teach since your knowlege is encyclopedic. I only know “pig’s Latin” if there is such an anecdotal thing.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
“Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant! (may barbarians invade your personal space.) Vescere bracis meis. (Eat my shorts).
Just for you AAG.
I lectured for many years at Uni but not a Prof. I share the same corrupted psycho-path as Roberts and AngryHarry and Chapin, (and a surprising number of MRA’s), and ‘Modernised Pig’ is an apt description of my Latin. Twenty odd years as man of mental pieces and twenty odd as a warrior (I reached Air Vice Marshal, but only for 10 minutes) exposes one to much. Some rubs off.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Whoops. The translation is for you, AAG. The Latin messages were for Dee Dee.
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre? (Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?). Try that on your missus.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:22 am
8..amfortas,
Thank you for the explanation. I apologize if I invaded your personal sapace.Roberst, Angry Harry and Chapin are exellent columinsts, but I’m confused as befrore by your prefix to their descruption. Angry Harry I have read long ago and local paper a few years agp had a column Chapin and Chapin, but I dare not to invade his space by asking if he is the better half.(reverse of traditional)
I also looke up Pig Latin. It was allegedly invented by US soldiers during the WW II. It has rather simple rules, but takes some practice. What Modernize Pig Latin you mentioned is, I have no clue.
Thank you again for replying.
Best, AAG
April 14th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Link to Pig Latin use
http://www.wikihow.com/Speak-Pig-Latin
April 14th, 2008 at 11:27 am
“the same corrupted psycho-path “: all mentioned are professional psychologists, AAG, but the profession has been corrupted by feminists for quite a while now. We struggle against the PC tide.
Modernised pig latin tries to cast up-to-date phrases and idioms like ‘eat my shorts’ I doubt Caesar said that at anytime. Maybe you could try this one on Mrs AAGeneral – “O! Plus! Perge! Aio! Hui! Hem!”. I think Mrs Caesar would have heard something similar.
(Oh! More! Go on! Yes! Ooh! Ummm! )
April 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Mass incarceration, innocent lives destroyed by false accusers without a shred of evidence, false accusers getting no jail time, equal pay for unequal work, public education teaching the values of socialism– what are some of the other achievements of feminism in America over the past 40 years?