While I do not necessarily disagree with these sentiments, perhaps they are rash. Had Gunn not been under the time constraints of late night television and been allowed to support his claim, his logic would be more transparent. Under more favorable circumstances, I believe that Gunn's comments would have elicited more positive reactions from our corner of the blogosphere.
Consider a similar claim by the Reverend John Todd in the mid-nineteenth century:
Some [women] have tried to become semi-men by putting on the Bloomer dress. Let me tell you in a word why it can never be done. It is this: woman, robed and folded in her long dress, is beautiful. She walks gracefully. . . . If she attempts to run, the charm is gone. . . . Take off the robes, and put on pants, and show the limbs, and grace and mystery are all gone.
6 comments:
I appreciate your defense, O, but I have a hard time believing that Tim Gunn could say anything to make his comment about Hillary's gender confusion less offensive. As for the time constraints of late night TV, don't forget Harrogate's other post re: Tim Gunn's Newsweek online interview, in which he elaborates on the same topic.
I'm sorry that you remain offended, Supa. But sometimes the truth is difficult to digest. The good Reverend's argument is a strong one.
Oxymoron, the Reverend's argument is not a strong one. It relies upon the idea that women can only be graceful in a dress. Given the context of these remarks and the history for women wearing bloomers (Amy Reads, you know more about this than I do, so please weigh in), it seems most likely to me that the Reverend Todd's comments are actually in response to the women's rights movement of the mid- to late-nineteenth century when women began wearing bloomers as a way to protest the fact that they were not permitted to vote (or hold property, or receive inheritances if they were married, or divorce). While his sentiment is quite poetic and even romantic, the Reverend is saying that women should remain mysterious, graceful, and silent. If you do some further research on John Todd, you will find that he argued that feminists were to blame for the "sexual imbalance in the East" that occurred in the Northeast around the 1870s and 1880s. What Todd seems to be referring to is the fact that many men were moving west, largely as a result of the Gold Rush and other opportunities. Further, he believed that "Feminists were responsible for driving men away, for depriving their own sex of what Todd believed they automatically wanted, that is, marriage." Thus, I don't get the logic of these statements: women are more beautiful in skirts. That is not logic; that is an opinion. Women are more graceful and mysterious in skirt; again, that is opinion, not logic. Todd's statements are equally sexist as Tim Gunn's, if not more so, even in the context of the nineteenth century.
Hmmm, good old Reverend Todd.
This is an interesting post which on the surface appears to bring some much-needed levity to the Situation. Although, supa's point about Tim Gunn is a sound one: the time constraint argument doesn't work, it is clearly something he believes.
And then, m's response to the Reverend Todd reminds us that, much as we might immediately be charmed by his poetics regarding women, they do in the end operate more as contraints than as a celebration.
But anyway. In reference to the alleged unattractiveness of women running, Harrogate would invite Reverend Todd, were he to come back from the dead, to check out the video of Kerri Strug's Olympic Vault, so many moons ago.
I submit, as an example to further support Harrogate, any image of the great Carrie Bradshaw running in heels. Bravo, Sarah Jessica, bravo! Were it not for you, I, too, would have succumbed to the heady rhetoric of the Reverend Todd.
I guess that it's time to respond to everyone's comments here.
First, and this is directed to megsg-h, when I see Carrie Bradshaw running in heels or wearing pants, I think not of beauty and grace but, instead, of Terry Bradshaw.
And to Harrogate: I do not know the gymnasts of whom you speak. But I suspect that, like most "women" who excel in the sport of gymnastics, she has no hint of a chest and her legs look like they belong to Lou Ferrigno.
And, finally, a response to M. Well, the truth is this: M's comment's don't deserve a response. While they are interesting and thoughtful, they take my original post seriously. :-)
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