Maureen's At It Again

Thus wrote Egalitarian Bookworm Chick's numero uno persona non grata, Maureen Dowd yesterday in her column:

Usually, I love the dynamics of a cheeky woman puncturing the ego of a cocky guy.

I liked it in ’40s movies, and I liked it with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, and Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis in “Moonlighting.”

So why don’t I like it with Michelle and Barack?

I find it incumbent on myself to provide a variety of answers to MoDo's rhetorical question:

1. Barack and Michelle are real people, not characters, and actually have implications for society. You hate serious stuff like that, I know.
   
2. In the movies and media settings you describe, the woman still remains second potato, and thus the "cheekiness" is a mere conceit designed to flatter the man.
3. The Obamas are black people who act like they're actually entitled to this, like they're people or something. God, how rude of them. Good thing you slammed them with such hard-hitting rhetoric, Maureen.
   
4. They have the kind of equal marriage you bemoan you will never have, thereby eliminating your master theory that all smart men date down (actually, Mo', only smart assholes date down).
   
5. Unlike the cheeky vixens in 40s movies whom you so admire, they don't conform to 40s definition of gender roles. But then again, it's not the 40s. Hasn't been for a long time.
   

The entire column is a blot on the face of womankind, but this gem takes the cake:

She throws in nice stuff, too, about how he’s “the real deal” and a trustworthy “brother.” But this princess of South Chicago, a formidable Princeton and Harvard Law School grad, wants us to know that she’s not polishing the pedestal.

And why the hell should she? Also, as swvl pointed out, putting "brother" in scare quotes isn't just racist-ish. It's racist. And calling Michelle a princess in such a dismissive way implies that only the WASPy belle dames of the Hollywood golden age deserve to be princesses. Certainly not African American women, or Jewesses for that matter. They're just bitches. There might be a princess-loophole for a particular brand of flame-haired Irish Catholic broads though-- in Dowd's self-hating fantasies.

Maureen, I'm watching you. I've insitituted Maureen Dowd Patrol on my blog, and am going to try to catch you at your misogynist bullshit twice a week, every week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, schedule permitting. So watch your back, girl. I'm sticking to you like you stick to your vapid credo.

UPDATE: and here's a Salon piece dissing the Edwards haircut fracas.