Maureen Dowd Scoop! Real Life In The CIA Is Not Like Television!
MoDo clears it all up for us in The New York Times:
"The problem is that they portray most women in such a one-dimensional way; whatever the character flaw is, that's all they are," said Gina Bennett, a slender, thoughtful mother of five who has been an analyst in the Counterterrorism Center over the course of 25 years and who first began sounding the alarm about Osama bin Laden back in 1993."It can leave a very distinct understanding of women at the agency -- how we function, how we relate to men, how we engage in national security -- that is pretty off," Bennett said. She was sitting in a conference room at Langley decorated with photos of a memorial for the seven C.I.A. officers -- including Bennett's close friend Jennifer Matthews -- who were blown up in 2009 by a Jordanian double agent in Khost, Afghanistan.
Agreed Sandra Grimes, a perky 69-year-old blonde who helped unmask her C.I.A. colleague Aldrich Ames as a double agent for the Russians after noticing that he had traded up from a battered Volvo to a Jaguar: "I wish they wouldn't use centerfold models in tight clothes. We don't look that way. And we don't act that way."
Indeed, when I ask Bennett if she is wearing a Tory Burch dress, she replies, "I couldn't afford anything like that. It's probably Burlington Coat Factory."
I talked to several current and former women at the C.I.A. at the request of the usually close-lipped agency, which wants to show a stable side missing from portrayals like the one in the new NBC drama "State of Affairs." In the premiere, Katherine Heigl's C.I.A. analyst gets wasted on shots, picks up a stranger and upbraids her shrink for being "judge-y" -- all before briefing the woman president. The women I spoke with agreed that the "honey pot" image of C.I.A. women using sex to get secrets, as Carrie did in "Homeland," was Hollywood sensationalism.
Wow...really? Do they really do that sort of thing in TV?
Also, given how stupid men get when it comes to sex with hotties, does anyone REALLY believe the CIA NEVER uses hot chicks to fuck state secrets out of men?
lujlp at April 5, 2015 11:03 PM
They used to, lujlp, but they now use the Velma approach instead of the Daphne. Not politically correct or effective but meets the new paradigm.
causticf at April 6, 2015 5:25 AM
It IS politically correct and NOT effective. Dang it, still on my first coffee
causticf at April 6, 2015 5:28 AM
I think a lot of the whole honey pot idea came from the fact that some of the Hollywood Communists were introduced and seduced by KGB agents from the so called "Sparrow School", where they literally trained female agents to seduce the secrets from foreign dignitaries and functionaries
spqr2008 at April 6, 2015 5:30 AM
So, is Bennett claiming men in the CIA are portrayed correctly in TV and movies? Our analysts all have piercing blue eyes and look like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Ben at April 6, 2015 6:19 AM
The Hollywood unrealism that most annoys me is how they always portray prosecutors as embattled, underpaid, heroic pursuers of justice. No mention of unqualified immunity, politicking on the way to higher office, railroading innocent people, etc.
Anyway, if I could have a pony and a chance to change one character class on TV, I'd pick prosecutors over CIA officials, or maybe just require people to read on Radley Balko column for every episode of Law and Order they watch.
Astra at April 6, 2015 7:09 AM
Wait! Hollywood distorts things?
So, if I become a CSI, I won't get to interview suspects and bust down the doors ahead of the SWAT team?
And if I work in advertising, I won't get to have serial affairs with clients and secretaries?
Well, that's disappointing.
Conan the Grammarian at April 6, 2015 7:57 AM
It's less about seducing secrets than about getting leverage via blackmail. Operative seduces their target, gets photographs of the encounter (now a days, video) and then comes back and says hey, you have a nice life with a nice family and a good job, be a terrible shame if this incriminating evidence was accidentally sent to your wife/boss/FBI.
That's the hook. To set the hook, the foreign operative asks for something they know about very well but isn't terribly sensitive. Target gives up the data, hoping that is all. Hook is now set, as you have transferred something you shouldn't have. After that, you'll never be free. They'll be back for more and more.
But yes, Hollywood is about entertainment and if they have the bruise some laws of physics along the way, well...
I R A Darth Aggie at April 6, 2015 9:26 AM
I'm with you Astra!
Ben at April 6, 2015 9:54 AM
"I wish they wouldn't use centerfold models in tight clothes."
Exactly! That's what we men think too. We just HATE that. Give us the Angela-Lansbury-In-Murder-She-Wrote look any day.
JD at April 6, 2015 9:59 PM
State of Affairs is an awful show that exists simply as a Heigl vehicle.
You want to know what life is like at the CIA for 99% of the agents who work there? Picture sitting in front of your computer all day doing nothing but looking at websites while simply filing out checkboxes about whatever you're reading. You don't even get to follow up leads or anything, that's for the guys higher up.
No autonomy, no creativity, just repetition ad nauseam. The portrayal of women as centerfolds is kind of at the bottom of the list when it comes to the CIA
Davis at April 8, 2015 6:17 AM
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