I was interested to see what Ann Romney's speech at the RNC would look and sound like.
I thought she did great, she obviously wanted to support her husband by humanizing him/making him more accessible, the crowd seemed to love her.
There were a few sentences that were just grammatically weird or flat-out incomprehensible. ("We're too smart to know there aren't easy answers" - wait. So we're so smart that we don't/can't know that??? I listened to that part three times and finally just let it go). But that's her speech writer's fault, or their assumption that the juxtaposition that followed it would help people get what she MEANT (even if it wasn't what they had her SAY).
Those things aside....
It was just so SO Mormon-y, I can't get over it!
There was the teary-bleary-I'm-holding-my-tears-in-which-means-what-I'm-saying-is-true stuff. (Now, I understand that the Spirit can be tear-inducing, but come on, it doesn't HAVE to be ALL the time)
Then there was the "You women are so awesome" stuff. Over at Exponent II they've already commented on the parallel between the LDS church's (mis)treatment of women with that of the RNC, so I"ll just direct you there. In a nutshell I just think it's amazing how two very powerful, far-reaching organizations do sexist and discriminatory things and then tell women how AWESOME or INCREDIBLE they are in some sort of attempt to make up for it.
(Can I just point out, most of us can see through that? LDS leaders and RNC big-wigs, we'll still be mad that in many cases you don't listen to us, and think we're not capable of leading or making difficult decisions, and want to force us to have transvaginal ultrasounds. Your actions give me a much clearer indication of what you think of me.)
But here's the big thing.
I resent the implication that my husband doesn't work every bit as hard as I do to support our family, or understand our family's needs as well as I do, or is less awesome than me.
Maybe women are great, but you don't have to tear down our husbands, fathers, brothers, and colleagues, in order to help us understand that. Either we already know it, or nothing you can say will convince us of it.
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I didn't watch it. I have given up on politics completely. I do have to say, though, not all women are awesome. Some are jerks. Same for men. I'd love for us to be able to not generalize. I know that's kind of off topic, but we couldn't get away with something like that if we were talking about, say, an ethnic group, and we certainly couldn't get away with it if it were a negative generalization.
No, it's not off topic at all....it's what bothered me about the whole thing.
The "You must fit the mold if you are to TRULY belong among us" thing - it's never stated aloud, but the generalizations scream it loudly and clearly.
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