Conspiracy Comedy By Naomi Wolf
Katherine Mangu-Ward reports over at reason that Naomi Wolf is losing it -- and just can't shut up about it. First, there are the trials and tribulations of running for office. Mangu-Ward puts it so perfectly:
Naomi Wolf, bestselling author of The Beauty Myth, lover of earth tones, and speaker of truth to power, was recently found crumpled on the floor in Newark airport between a T.G.I. Friday's and a World's Best Yogurt, sobbing into her cell phone. How do I know about this embarrassing episode? Private detectives? Security camera footage? Nope. Wolf tells me, and anyone else who cares to know, all about it in the first section of her new book."I am not ashamed of this abasement," she writes, "because I was actually heartsick."
What could possibly be so terrible that it would overcome the powerful natural instinct to minimize contact with the floor of Newark airport at all costs? Apparently, it is difficult to run for office in America.
And then, they're stealing her mail! All the stuff of great interest to national security:
At a Ron Paul Revolution March this past July, Wolf told the crowd--composed mostly of people waving banners with legends like "Read Atlas Shrugged" and "Mises Saves"--this story: "My daughter is 13 years old. She's in summer camp right now. She's writing me letters. I'm not getting her letters. I'm not getting half of my mail. And when my mail arrives, it's ripped wide open. I showed it to the Post Office and they said 'That's not possible.'"When she retold the story at Borders last month, she mentioned that birthday party invitations for her daughter were now also being intercepted.
Explanation Number One: Thirteen-year-old girls are terrible correspondents and worse friends, and Wolf's daughter will be spending the next few months silently mortified that her white lies about letter writing and her social ostracism have taken the national stage as part of her mother's conspiracy theories. Explanation Number Two: The American secret police believe that vital information is contained in correspondence from teenage girls, and have confiscated all letters written in pink ink.
Your call.
Naomi Wolf: Own Worst Enemy Combatant. (At least she's consistent!) Here, from a previous Advice Goddess column I wrote:
...Feminists see a cruel plot against women who eat. According to Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, there's a patriarchal conspiracy to keep women dieting so they'll be too weak and hungry to compete with men.Whatever you do, avoid reading Naomi Wolf, who suggests that, until women can shovel down just as many donuts as men do, they "cannot experience equal status in the community."
What I don't understand is how this woman earns a living selling her ideas. Perhaps someone can explain. What does it take, some super-secret special kind of publicist?
By the way, I think the Post Office is wonderful. I mail a letter to somebody in Los Angeles, and for 42 cents, it's there the next day. Just amazing. In this case, I vote for the notion that for letters to get there, they have to be written, stamped, and mailed.
"What I don't understand is how this woman earns a living selling her ideas."
I don't get it either. But then, I wonder that a lot: Those who do good, solid work can't sell it. They are generally terrible marketeers, or sales and marketing is simply of zero interest to them.
As for those who attract the most attention: if what they're selling is any good, it's generally not their fault.
As far as I can tell, this applies pretty much equally to all fields of human endeavor...
bradley13 at October 14, 2008 4:47 AM
Wow I just read the entire article. I think the best part was that this woman channeled a 13 year old boy and saw Jesus. What a nut job. How is she selling books, her thoughts are totally disjoined and make no sense.
Nina at October 14, 2008 4:55 AM
Amy - there's a big market for stupid. I mean, Molly Ivins made a successful career out of not being able to write a paragraph without degenerating into a hunk of babbling protoplasm. Sometimes she couldn't finish a sentence about a sunrise without complaining about how much it made her hate Republicans.
What bothers me is that anything this woman vomits forth onto paper will be consumed anxiously by people who don't realize they're reading tripe.
brian at October 14, 2008 5:39 AM
In college years ago, a female friend told me that her ex-boyfriend was convinced that the reason he was having trouble with his grades was that somebody was out to get him.
It sounds like this guy was one of the types who makes up Wolf's audience. It's an easy trap to fall into: if things are less than peachy, it must be somebody else's fault. It sure beats the possible alternatives:
- The other students are way smarter or work a lot harder
- Learning the ins and outs of political campaigning is harder than it looks
- Your kid hasn't written as often as she claims
But come on -- Naomi Wolf isn't all that nuts. We all know people like her. It's just that most of us don't write books like she does, or are at least self-aware enough not to put silly stuff on mass-marketed paper.
old rpm daddy at October 14, 2008 5:48 AM
Whoa, there brian, As the decendent of scotsmen I can NOT stand by and let you insult tripe like that
lujlp at October 14, 2008 5:48 AM
Eck. It was like the whole city of Austin went into mourning when Ivins died. I don't think she was a bad person or anything, but I do think she was misguided and illogical. I'm not sure who I dislike more... the Neocons or the Yellow Dog Democrats. Neither are rational.
I thought that surely Wolf must be a fatty because of her diet conspiracy, but evidently she is not. So, now I'm more confused.
Oh, and I just wanted to throw in one of my favorites:
"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you." -unknown
ahw at October 14, 2008 10:16 AM
By the way, I agree with you about the Post Office. I am always amazed when people bitch and moan about a $0.02 price increase. Ok, so now it costs $0.42 to mail your letter. Think about it. For less than half a dollar, you can send a small scrap of paper from your doorstep, all the way across the country, and into a friend or relative's hands in a day or two! Door to door! Of every single household and business in America, this organization is able to find you, carry your scrap of paper 3,000 miles, find your brother, sister, mother, BFF, and practically place it in their hands 24-72 hours later. At no expense to the taxpayer. And really, considering the sheer volume that goes in and out of your hands week after week, when was the last time a piece of your mail got lost? Doesn't happen too often.
fft5305 at October 14, 2008 11:20 AM
from your doorstep, ... Door to door!
I know several small towns around here that you have to go to the P.O. and get your mail from the box. (But the towns are about 2 blocks wide by 1 block long.) :-p
when was the last time a piece of your mail got lost? Doesn't happen too often.
Unfortunately the system is too good. They get my bills to me on time. ;-)
Just had to throw in some humor.
--------------------------------------
The USA has a long tradition of a free press. But we have to let this drivel out, because if we silence one side, we are no better than those would try to silence us.
Jim P. at October 14, 2008 11:45 AM
FFT5305 has a good point. And it's not like $0.42 for a stamp is all that steep, either. Here are some other countries' rates:
UK Letter Rate (RoyalMail.com): 36 Pence, about $0.63 US.
Japanese Standard-Size Item Rate (post.japanpost.jp): 80 Yen, about $0.78 US.
German Standard Letter Rate (howtogermany.com): 0.55 Euros, about $0.75 US.
Exchange rates are as of today from www.x-rates.com. Don't know why anyone would particularly want to know any of it, but things like that interest me.
old rpm daddy at October 14, 2008 1:27 PM
Wow! After reading that article about Naomi, I had to check and make sure something wasn't slipped into my coffee. I now have a new respect for people who I thought were batshit nuts.
Sterling at October 14, 2008 1:39 PM
I know the type of people like Naomi Wolf. I had dealt with them before. These persons are suffering from something like a reality-based "Munchausen syndrome" where they connect unrelated dots in the hope of seeing an inexistent bigger picture.
The persons I knew had amazingly inflated egos with really little to support it. Some of their lives were based on the fallacy that they were "Special" in a way. The real danger is when they find a public. All the sects that i took the time to study are based on the same ground; some guy connected the dots and here's goes the cult.
For the record, I would like to inform you that the postal stamp in Canada cost 0.52$CAN for a coast-to-coast service.
Toubrouk at October 14, 2008 3:31 PM
Hmmm. Maybe I'm being simple, but it seems to me that Ms. Wolf profits from great masses of women who really, really dislike men, but who really, really want to be in a committed relationship with a man too.
Watch Vicky Christina Barcelona for more exploration of the contradictory desires felt so ardently by the modern woman.
Jeff at October 14, 2008 4:06 PM
My PO is staffed by people without a functioning brain stem. But then, we all know how I feel about those folks who are thrilled to get a "good job with the government."
I had to enlist my local House rep in the cause of me getting my mail 6 days a week. The culprits? The regular guy took Mondays off, and the weekend guy didn't bother to drive down my tiny street. Things are better now, but not great.
Naomi is an idiot.
Kate at October 14, 2008 9:22 PM
Ok, not much to say about Naomi Wolfe except that I owned The Beauty Myth once but I seemed to have misplaced it at my sister's.
In Norway, it costs roughly 0.95$ to send across the country and it's a small country :D
Kendra at October 14, 2008 10:52 PM
She's crazy. Plain and simple. Is that in the vernacular enough?
I'll join in cheerleading the Post Office but I do wish they'd stop sponsoring the damned Olympics. If they did, we'd still get the same service for $.40.
T's Grammy at October 15, 2008 7:42 AM
So this is where feminism has sunk to: the floor of the Newark airport. To borrow a term that Ms. Wolf has no doubt used herself many times, "EEEEWWWWWWW!"
Cousin Dave at October 15, 2008 3:57 PM
Sex and the city at 11 god I'm so sad in on a friday night watchin SATC
Erna Bodison at April 13, 2011 7:40 AM
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