Robyn Blumner's defense of women hobbled by her politics

It's time again for a review of an editorial column from Robyn "Blumñata" Blumner.

This week, Blumner rose to the defense of Elena Kagan, President Obama's selection to replace retiring justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.

Most of Blumner's column is well taken. Kagan's appearance is not relevant to her nomination to the post, and some of the attacks on Kagan have been mean-spirited.

I'll even give Blumnmer extra credit for allowing a fairly obvious hint that conservatives are not alone in criticizing Kagan's looks:

It was inevitable that Elena Kagan's physical appearance would become fodder for critics of her nomination to the Supreme Court. The solicitor general, a woman of remarkable professional achievement, is still, after all, a woman. Even in 2010, 50 years after the stultifying Mad Men era, a woman's looks are part of her resume.

Of course, the most distasteful sentiments are coming from the extreme right.

Such as the extreme right BuzzFeed.

But seriously, Blumner focuses all of her energy in attacking the double standard society places on the appearance of women but whiffs on a huge part of that double standard (and arguably contributes to the double standard):

The corollary to this is the Sarah Palin phenomenon — a woman whose great looks have earned her a place as an opinionmaker, despite demonstrable intellectual limits. (...) Somehow her beauty magically transforms the mash of incoherence she spouts into pearls of wisdom for supporters.

In actuality, Palin's appearance has repeatedly served as a bludgeon used to belittle her accomplishments, and Blumner certainly appears to wield it that way.  If beauty was all there was to it, then Carrie Prejean 2012 stickers ought to be much more common.  Palin is an intelligent woman, if not an intellectual, and her popularity stems from her charisma and her skill in communicating a message.  Her beauty is a bonus.

Women are treated unfairly based on looks.  Attractive women have their accomplishments downgraded because of their looks.  And less attractive women of great accomplishment are downgraded as people because of their looks.  It's a pity that Blumner skipped an opportunity to criticize both sides of the dilemma.



Additional note:

One of Blumner's examples of right-wing neanderthalism, radio talk show host Neal Boortz, may have received a bad rap from Blumner.  Let's review her presentation of what Boortz said:

A recent tweet from radio host Neal Boortz asked, "Has anyone seen Mike Myers and your new Supreme in the same room at the same time?" comparing Kagan to Shrek, the cartoon ogre character of which Myers is the voice.

A number of liberal media outlets are making a similar criticism of Boortz.  But when I saw that Kagan had been compared to Michael Myers already, I decided it was worth looking into the basis for this claim.

Here's a consecutive pair of Boortz tweets (both from May 11):

Note that the Twitter feeds list in reverse chronological order.  The 3:56 a.m. tweet appears to compare Kagan directly with Mike Myers, just as did BuzzFeed.  The 5:13 a.m. tweet is worded as though it is a response to somebody else's comparison of Kagan to Shrek, with Boortz calling the comparison "a wee bit below the belt."

Funny how that part was left out in Blumner's account.