Why does he sound like his ideal woman is from one of those old “Enjolie” commercials from the 1970s?

This is amusing, but it’s been all over the internet since I’ve been on the internet.  On political message boards this has been the right wing narrative since I discovered them in 2001.  And it’s not just the men.  Con women revel in it.  The ones I have experience with at any rate.

I have to admit I have never polled the woman members of my gym or of my step class about their political affiliation.  I imagine the results of such a poll would line up pretty good with the demographic the gym is in.  For instance, in my LI gym there are probably many Republicans but also many Democrats.  At a NYC gym I get guest passes to from my friend, they’re probabaly mostly Democrats and liberals.

The high heels thing is hystercal.  I wonder if he doesn’t want to strap on a pair himself?

Liberal women only get stuck in traffic because right-wingers and their damn teaparties stuff up the roads.

Srsly.

Of all the right-wing misogynist talking points, “sensible footwear” is by far the most bizarre to me. When they stop demanding - literally and nakedly *demanding* - that women sacrifice practicality, comfort, and health for the sake of silly and outmoded standards of attractiveness, I’ll try to keep a straight face when they tell me they’re not sexist.

If you’re lucky, she just remembered to buy steak and forgot about the carrot entirely.

And if you’re really lucky, your sexxxay right-wing wife feeds you until you get a correspondingly sexxxay case of gout and/or scurvy.

All I can say is the comments to the original article are pretty much a thorough ass-kicking.  It gives me hope.

Certainly there’s no such thing as attractive and sensible footwear.

Of all the right-wing misogynist talking points, “sensible footwear” is by far the most bizarre to me.

Well, you see, feminism leads to the idea of irresponsible sex, and that means that liberal women are obsessed with sex, which… wait… er…  Stupid too-sexy unsexy feminists and their simultaneous slutty-homely ways!

Oh, this all so reminds me of the “VPILF” t-shirts that wingnuts were hawking as soon as Sarah Palin was named the Republican VP nominee last fall.

Yes, these idiots really believed that by “praising” their own vice presidential candidate as someone they’d like to fuck, they were paying her a compliment.

Because honestly, as long as she’s fuckable, it doesn’t matter what sort of moronic shit about the proximity of Russia to Alaska she spews from her mouth.

“Sensible footwear” are, no matter how cute, offensive simply because you are signaling that your desire to walk is important to you, which indicates that you have an internal life and you desire comfort and the avoidance of pain. This indicates that you might be something other than a sexbot that does housework.  This is unacceptable, so you have to wear outside indicators that you are the person who always comes last.

I’m a shoe whore.  95% of my shoes are flats.  They are fucking adorable and sexy.  I hate ugly shoes, as the Croc defenders know, but I also believe you don’t have to compromise good looks for aesthetics.

This footwear thing is interesting to me too. My wife wears high heels to often in my opinion and sometimes even when she knows we’ll be doing some walking. It is somehow ingrained in her head, not that high heels are sexier, but that she is too short and when she wears flats or tennis shoes, she looks weird or dumpy (she is 5’1”). I’ve gotten used to it now over the years (15) but sometimes I still question her choice of footwear. Does anyone else here do that? I’m genuinely curious. She does wear proper shoes when we are “going for a walk” or bike riding, but that’s about it.

It really seems like a willingness to suffer is what gets these guys hot, more than anything else. High heels can be attractive, obviously, but I doubt they’d be as sexy to some people if they didn’t imply pain and discomfort. Likewise working out all the time, being a Stepford wife, and pretending to think conservative men’s jokes are funny.

For some reason, that line about being unable to buy Jimmy Choos in a socialist paradise made me laugh.  Probably because Jimmy Choo is based out of the UK.

Also, if I were publicly fantasizing about the kind of woman I knew I could never have, I’d at least try to be interesting about it. This guy writes like Rush Limbaugh is looking over his shoulder.

you don’t have to compromise good looks for aesthetics.

Good looks for comfort, somehow I think you meant.

And when that plate of food is put in front of you by the right-wing hottie you had the good sense to marry, it will be 100% tofu-free. If you’re lucky, she just remembered to buy steak and forgot about the carrot entirely.

Because she’s trying to kill you with a heart attack before 40 so she can marry her yoga instructor.  Known fact.

Dammit!  FlipYrWhig beat me to it!  Dammit!

The irony is I missed posting first because I went off to eat steak.  But since I cooked it myself while looking after my daughter I suppose that I have to hand in my ‘nads.

Wow.  I just read the article in question and wow, just wow.  That guy is one deluded choad.  Shorter Robinson:  “not only are ‘our’ women hotter, they also know their place!”

Apparently, we liberal women are supposed to be all butt hurt that Ian Robinson doesn’t want to marry us, which of course is like asking us to be sad because no one wants to take a piss in our eyes.

I think Robinson would identify your unwillingness to have your eyes pissed in as one more reason to avoid dating liberal women—and women everywhere would identify it as one more reason to avoid dating him.

As long as there are men like this around, the mail-order bride market will never want for customers.

Never forgot the memorable words of Cybill Shepard, noted sneaker wearer, on this subject:  Sure I think high heels are sexy, when I’m on my back and my legs are in the air.

And yes, I have.

But I refuse to teeter around, hobbled, by those things in real life.  I’ve got shit to do!

Never slept with a Republican, to my knowledge, but that had more to do with an aversion to their politics (I also recently dumped someone who claimed to be a Democrat when I heard one too many loony, racist, homophobic libertarian theories come out of his piehole—thanks, Lou Dobbs!)

No matter how hot,  having to pour bleach my ear canals after the date wouldn’t be worth it. But if we were to judge conservatives on physical attractiveness: Rush Limbaugh, Fred Thompson, Strom Thurman, Bill O’Reilly—handsome? Ick, oh ick.

Two can play at that game.

I tend to choose my friends, and lovers, more on the basis of what they think than how they look, although looking good is always a plus in the lovers category.  It’s not enough of a plus to make me spend any time at all with a right wing jerk though. 

Shoes, though, I tend to choose on a basis of whether they make my feet hurt.  I like my shoes to be as light as possible for whatever occasion I’m wearing them.  I don’t like anything above the ankles, and I’m not fond of straps.  A poorly fitting shoe is never acceptable. 

I like the Cybil Shepard quote.  Form fits function.

Both liberal and conservative men can agree that left-wing women are opinionated and argue with men.

The difference is that they consider that undesirable…

How does shit like that even get published? It kind of props up Atrios’ continuing comment that newspapers aren’t doing a very good job of making people give a shit whether they disappear or not.

I mean, seriously. I get these emails at work from people I know, and I wonder, who the fuck has the time to seek out pictures of the Atlas Shrugged lady, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and, like, 7 other conservative women, resize them, lay them out, then write 6 paragraphs on how liberal women are dogs, and conservative women are the ideal of beauty. I once thought it would be funny to compile an “answer” email, googled pictures of Karl Rove and Ari Fleischer, got bored, and gave up.

I’d hate to have to pay their vasoline bill.

The strange thing about the shoe stuff is that it has precisely no basis.  Liberal professional/office-environment women, as a group, probably wear fancy shoes.  Conservative professional/office-environment women, as a group, probably do too.  Liberal and conservative women who work in other kinds of environments, including the home, probably wear shoes that make sense in that context.  I know the writer has this weird belief/fantasy that conservative women are not only willing to be but fond of being super fixed-up while doing domestic shit, but, ya know, I haves me doubts.

Um… for all of his supposed insults, the liberal woman still sounds more like the person I’d want to date. Maybe it’s just me.

Junk Science #14

“This guy writes like Rush Limbaugh is looking over his shoulder.”

The article in question is about the hawtness of 13 yr old Dominican boys?

Sick fucks!!!

Good grief. Not like I care what anyone wears, but this must be why New York, Paris, Rome, LA, and Berlin are filled with conservatives. All the fashion meccas are, you know.

”I know the writer has this weird belief/fantasy that conservative women are not only willing to be but fond of being super fixed-up while doing domestic shit, but, ya know, I haves me doubts.”

‘twas always thus
40-50 yrs ago the Donna Reed show was mocked for the “doing housework in pearls” crap

while the conservitives of the day lauded it as “the real america”

I get these emails at work from people I know, and I wonder, who the fuck has the time to seek out pictures of the Atlas Shrugged lady, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and, like, 7 other conservative women

I don’t feel good saying this, because it’s pretty sexist to dwell on women’s looks this way when you know nobody’s writing entire articles about how good or bad conservative men look, but since I’m not the one who brought it up, let me just say that Ann Coulter looks like frikken Nosferatu. When conservatives play her card as an example as a “sexy,” “smart” conservative woman, I kind of feel bad for them.

Ayn Rand wasn’t too bad looking, though, I have to admit.

But if we were to judge conservatives on physical attractiveness: Rush Limbaugh, Fred Thompson, Strom Thurman, Bill O’Reilly—handsome? Ick, oh ick. Two can play at that game.

Aw, be fair, Judi. John Ensign and Mark Sanford look good enough. Of course, you have to take a little adultery along with the looks, but you can’t have everything.

What the twit doesn’t realize is that he’s actually a poster child for the “compatible political views and thought processes are sexier than mere physical appearance” meme that liberals, feminists and other sane people have been pushing for decades. He’s effectively saying he would turn down many of the hottest, most toned, fit and expert women on the planet (as if) simply because they’re not willing to subjugate their desires and interests to his, suffer to be extra-hawt in the particular ways he likes, and put up with his entitled crap.

From the point of view of a true “manly man” this is wimpitude of the first order. It makes Douthat’s pill-phobia sound positively masculine.

“John Ensign and Mark Sanford look good enough”

Ah but then you’d be comparing apples to oranges: conservative comparison was two 50-60 year old women to one 20 - 30 years younger (Goldberg, Behar, to Hasselbeck—two women who became media figures by skill vs. one who became a media figure for looney stuff out of her pretty pie hole.)

Don’t you know how to play by Conservative rules?

Both liberal and conservative men can agree that left-wing women are opinionated and argue with men.

The difference is that they consider that undesirable…

This, PIATOR, fucking this.

Also, what’s up with this guy hating on women with well-developed calves wearing sensible shoes?  In my book, that’s pure hotness.  But what do I know?  I’m a liberal wimp with a mangina, or something.

It is somehow ingrained in her head, not that high heels are sexier, but that she is too short and when she wears flats or tennis shoes, she looks weird or dumpy (she is 5’1”).

That’s especially funny to me because, even though I never wear high heels (unrelated knee injury) and barely top 5’2”, people are always convinced I’m taller than I am.  Even me, sometimes—I was utterly convinced for years that I was at least 5’4” and it was a major shock to “lose” those extra inches of height.

The only time this backfired was at my wedding where I really should have asked my 5’7” matron of honor to wear flats.  Between her, the 6’0” groom, and the 6’4” best man, I look like a child bride.  But I didn’t even think of it until the pictures came back and I was like, “Geez, I’m shorter than I thought.”

teeming HORDES of women.  Though patriarchy is all about the hoarding of <strike>vagina</strike> women.

This whole wingnut meme about how their women are hotter is just dumb. Every aspect of “hot” they talk about is just “willing to conform to a preposterous ideal of hoardable-hood.”

Judy, great point. Behar is 57, Goldberg will be 54 next month, and Hasselbeck is 32.

Hasselbeck didn’t just get famous for “looney stuff out of her pretty pie hole.” She had the good fortune or foresight or whatever to marry an NFL star.

I wonder what will happen to those blonde cutie-pie anchors and correspondents at Fox News when they reach their expiration date?

Oh god, I know this is horrible, but my first thought was, “Ann Coulter. Argument over.”

The comments are fun to read though.

Has the writer ever visited conservative areas of this country (outside his imagination), the most most “conservative” are also the most rural and poverty stricken, where few women are tottering around on 5-inch heels.

The big cities of conservative states are trending blue, and the high heel capitals of the world, as a previous commentor noted—London, New York, Paris, Rome, New York—are famously liberal or socialist!

Yeah, I’d imagine more high heels per square inch in New York City than all of Arkansas and Georgia.

I live in L.A. and watch the tottering by locally in an area with bars, entertainment, socializing, mostly again women in their 20s, who I doubt are all that conservative from age or locale.

Once women have ruined their feet in high heels, or platforms or whatever in their 20s, they may generally gravitate to more comfortable shoes (still have a scar on a knee from a fall off platforms.)

But for every totterer on 5-inchers, this LA girl sees equally pretty women in 20s, 30s and on up sport Uggs, athletic shoes, pretty and/or comfortable flats, sandals or the idigneous native footwear—flip-flops (yes, still, in October.)

What does any of that prove? Beats me, but it’s always difficult to make a sensible argument from conservative talk salad.

Amanda wrote:

therefore I’ll have to accept a career in the go-nowhere profession of being paid a mil a year to be awesome.

Congratulations on your capitalist success; I make far less than a million a year, and am envious! 

I’m a shoe whore.  95% of my shoes are flats.  They are fucking adorable and sexy.  I hate ugly shoes, as the Croc defenders know, but I also believe you don’t have to compromise good looks for aesthetics.

Well, nearly as I can remember from your book, there really were no acceptable feminist shoes!

Mark wrote:

It is somehow ingrained in her head, not that high heels are sexier, but that she is too short and when she wears flats or tennis shoes, she looks weird or dumpy (she is 5’1”). I’ve gotten used to it now over the years (15) but sometimes I still question her choice of footwear. Does anyone else here do that?

My wife is 5’ 0”—and I sometimes tease her that she’s really 4’ 11¾”—but it’s almost entirely flats for her; I’m 6’ 2”, so there’s a fair difference there! 

Our younger daughter had to pick out some shoes for the Homecoming Dance a few weeks ago, and Elaine, who almost never wears heels herself, kept showing her these different heels in which she’d look good.  Said younger daughter, who is 18, can’t even walk in high heels, never learned how.  I pointed out some ballet flats.

Our older daughter almost never wore heels either, despite 14 years of dance training.  My first guess is that they pretty much followed their mother’s example; I’d guess that would be pretty common.

The big cities of conservative states are trending blue, Not Calgary.  It’s the only big city that doesn’t stick out of the surroundings like a sore thumb come election night.

Both liberal and conservative men can agree that left-wing women are opinionated and argue with men.

The difference is that they consider that undesirable…
Yeah, sounds about right.

Okay, so Goldberg and Behar became media figures through skill and are 20 years older, and Hasselbeck became a media spokeswomen through being pretty, marrying a media figure, and upchucking conservative bullshit.

Again, conservative comparing apples to oranges. I don’t know why, but this all reminds me of the old mid-20th century joke, that was supposed to embarrass (male) bigots: “You can take only one woman with you onto a desert island: your choice white or negro? Oh and the negro is (beautiful singer) Lena Horne, and the white woman is (famously fat and plain singer) Kate Smith.”

The joke (kinda) worked at the time, but only because the secret miscegenation of the period wasn’t acknowledged—think Strom Thurmond.

Don’t feel comfortable attacking either Baker or Thatcher for their looks, apparently Baker is cute without her makeup, and Thatcher was a dish as a young woman.

Feels like ageism to me, why take up the cugels of conservatives?

You take Lena Horne—because she’s less likely to get burned to a crisp under the desert island sun!

I really can’t get behind tying a woman’s worth to her alleged attractiveness, or to the idea of an objective standard of “attractiveness.”

I have a feeling I may have mentioned this in the past. This thread has been refreshingly free of ... er, of the sort of behavior I find hypocritical in this context.

I have to say, PiaToR nailed it.

My father got to meet Lena Horne, her cousin was on his ship and he took him back stage for an autograph
—not that it matters, just that her name don’t come up that often and I don’t get to say that very much

I feel so bad for the conservative women who read this and base their self-esteem on it (“Yeah, we are better than those ugly bitches”) and then strive to fit this ideal.

I am also perplexed about the shoe thing. When I was a conservative Christian, I wouldn’t wear high heels to church because they were too ostentatious and sexy and things that women aren’t supposed to be as Christians. Not that he’s specifically talking about religion w/r/t the shoes, but I’d bet he also thinks atheists are uglier than Christians.

So these conservative female sex machines, are they the same ones who equate birth control with abortion and therefore murder?  So, after a month or two, this conservative hottie is going to be pregnant, right?  And it will happen again, and again, and again until she has a quiverful of babies, as is her womanly duty.  But she’ll still be tottering around in high heels with that svelte gym figure?

Well, if not, she’ll at least still know how to cook steak.

Yikes. I am moving to Calgary in January (because of my wife’s work, so I guess I need to turn in my nads) - I hope that this idiot isn’t representative of mindsets there!  That said, no surprise that dreck like this is in the Sun: as a former Torontonian I know all too well the bottom-feeding, birdcage-lining Sun Media publications. I wouldn’t even call them “fishwrap”, because I wouldn’t want my fish’n'chips to get contaminated…

Hmph.  The fact that “smokescreen” would describe the Toronto Sun as contaminating fish wrap shows me one thing about this man.

That he has, in fact, read the Toronto Sun.

Bad news, smokescreen.  Calgary is that conservative.  So much so that my socially liberal fiscally very conservative big business friend was shocked when he moved there some years ago.

The only sensible footwear you’ll find in a right-wing woman’s closet are the Nike cross-trainers that go with her gym membership.

Everything else has a three-inch heel. Minimum.

That’s really funny, because among the conservative women I know, “proper” heels are only 1 to 2 inches (maybe 2.5). Three inch heels are “dressy”, about the equivalent of an evening gown or fancy cocktail dress: if you start wearing those to the grocery store or walking down the street, you’re just asking for rude comments and disapproving stares.

Any heel higher than three inches is dangerously close to “slut shoes” territory; any higher than four inches, and you might as well wear a leather micro skirt and get “I take Visa” tattooed just above your ass.

(All of which is a perfect example of Amanda’s contention that all the various rules of dress exist as a stick to beat women into submission with: if someone like Robinson says “three inch heels are TEH SEXXY!”, you can bet there’s a chorus of scolds right behind him insisting that no “respectable woman” would wear them.)

ok, but see, i thought high heel shoes were *bad* because they were “sexy”!

Look, I like a nicely shaped female ass rolling as much as the next heterosexual male slobberer.  But if it hurts or affects your health, then fuck us and our viewing pleasure - wear flats.  It’s not rocket science - live for yourself first and then looking good for the MOTAS a very distant second.

This may be about conservative men’s patriarchy, but it is also targeting women.

“I feel so bad for the conservative women who read this and base their self-esteem on it (“Yeah, we are better than those ugly bitches”) and then strive to fit this ideal. “

What this whole schtick is about, aside from the obvious points already brought up, is convincing women that they want to be conservative because “you want to be pretty, attractive and agreeable, right? Conservative women are more these things than liberal. So… you know what to do…: Buy Conservative!”

Classic late-capitalist marketing aimed at women, with the side benefit of giving conservative men a few tugs from the patriarchy.

A rule of thumb: if an article includes the positively antediluvian “tofu is real-man Kryptonite” shibboleth, it contains nothing of value and can be summarily ignored.

***Hasselbeck didn’t just get famous for “looney stuff out of her pretty pie hole.” She had the good fortune or foresight or whatever to marry an NFL star. ***

I’m embarrassed to know this, but her original claim to fame was being the 4th place finisher on Survivor: Australia.

***Three words: Tammy Faye Baker.  I’m fairly certain that that repulsive quivering heap of make up and cellulite would have come down on the rightward end of the political spectrum, but even the author of the piece would probably concede that a mere glimpse at an image of her face would be enough to murder the most robust erection.***

Don’t be hating on Tammy Faye. She was crazy as a shithouse rat, but she always seem to be, deep down, a sweet person.

“the positively antediluvian “tofu is real-man Kryptonite” shibboleth”

They use the servants of the Elder Things?  Well, makes sense.

erm… i just have trouble following the thought process.

Different right-wing subcultures.  What dude is really saying is he likes RICH, URBAN, NON-FUNDAMENTALIST right-wing women; Jimmy Choos run $500+ per pair. 

He’s just too dumb to qualify his statements.

This footwear thing is interesting to me too. My wife wears high heels to often in my opinion and sometimes even when she knows we’ll be doing some walking. It is somehow ingrained in her head, not that high heels are sexier, but that she is too short and when she wears flats or tennis shoes, she looks weird or dumpy (she is 5’1”). I’ve gotten used to it now over the years (15) but sometimes I still question her choice of footwear. Does anyone else here do that? I’m genuinely curious.

My wife is an inch taller, and she hates the fact that where we live means she can’t wear heels as often as she’d like.  Most are short ones, but she loves the calf-length leather boots with the 4” heel.  Come to think of it, so do I.  But I digress.

When she was living in New York she did the usual “sneakers/boots/flats to work, heels on the job” thing, and she’ll sometimes do it here (especially when she travels and is meeting professionally).  I’ve questioned her more than a few times about footwear selection, especially when she’s complaining about not being able to walk to work in heels.

Does any one else think its strange that he is glorifying moral modest conservative women who wear fuck me heels?

Just to note that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is not married to legitimate NFL star Matt Hasselbeck, starting quarterback of the Seahawks.  She is married to his less talented brother Tim Hasselbeck, career third string quarterback and now, apparently, co-host of an ESPN show about fantasy football.

”Don’t be hating on Tammy Faye. She was crazy as a shithouse rat, but she always seem to be, deep down, a sweet person.”

Yeah, I caught her on one of those stupid reality shows and expected to see a typical sleazy con-artist of the religious-right, and was shocked when she turned out to be, well, … nice

Does any one else think its strange that he is glorifying moral modest conservative women who wear fuck me heels?

Not in the last.  Those same moral modest conservative women are also (you’ll note) in good shape and obviously, in this idiot’s mind, wearing a modest miniskirt and probably plunging decolletage.  Because that’s what moral modest conservative women do, you know.  Oh, and probably carry kneepads for the blowjobs he expects to receive.

And Tammy Faye was very pro-Gay at the end. Despite her religion.

If you have ever seen the Eyes of Tammy Faye ... the two of them were superbly fucked by Jerry Falwell.

One thing about conservatives (including this putz)  is that they seem hold rather narrow ideas of what attractive women look like. So women who pass for beautiful among wingnuts tend to have (and aspire to) a certain cookie-cutter look: hair just so (blonde if possible), laboriously applied cosmetics, body types not usually found in nature, clothes that look like they came from expensive department stores (including stilletti). There’s a reason “blonde Republican sex kitten” became a stereotype.

If you offered a wingnut male an opportunity to have dinner with, say, the current Playmate of the Month or Janeane Garofalo, he’d go for the Playmate every time. Progressive men would probably go for the brainy, funny woman with the Chuck Taylors and her original boobs.

One of the commenters on the original article used what may now be my favourite slur of all time:

y’all are all douche canoes.

For that phrase alone, the rest of the tripe in this article was acceptable.

Sort of related, I was flipping through the channels last night, and saw a few minutes of the UCD/Pepperdine women’s volleyball game.  Why were some of these college athletes wearing eye makeup while playing a very hih-energy sport?

Dana - Maybe because they knew they’d be on TV?

Unfortunately there appears to be a big genetic component to bunions. Case in point: my wife, queen of the sensible shoes, has them. High heels may contribute to that, though.

I used to go to the gym a lot, and run every day.  The result was not perfect right-wing hotttness, it was large muscles and a flat chest.  Being built like an American Gladiator did make me look pretty awesome in heels, but I really don’t think this that’s what Douchecanoe here had in mind. Furthermore,  I think we can all figure out how he’d react if his fantasy conservochick scarfed twice as much steak as him while enthusiastically telling him about deadlifting 200 lbs.

It occurs to me that we may be on to the reason that the divorce rate among conservatives is so high.

I love my heels - love them, love them, love them.  But I’m super picky, and they have to be comfortable enough to walk through the entire historical district of Philadelphia in without giving me leg cramps (a test I made after doing that in a lovely pair of heels when I was under the impression that I would be meeting my brother for lunch in a nice restaurant, not touring back streets for two hours).  I check them for running in (ankle straps help - and mary janes look good on me), and for sturdiness (after having a 2” heel break on me for no good reason).

If the shoes fit that criteria and they’re attractive, they’re coming home with me.  But I don’t think that’s what conserva-douches want - they want teetering women on fragile heels who can’t run away from them.

That’s pretty lame.  Having lived in DC, LA and San Francisco, I’ve known plenty of very attractive women with liberal politics who hit the gym and wore fancy shoes.  And, now living in Oklahoma and spending a lot of time in southwest/rural Missouri, the women I know with conservative politics are not the type to hit the gym or wear fancy clothes.  I mean, they’re still attractive.  But gyms and high heels aren’t part of their lifestyle.

I wonder how this jives with the Sarah Palin, “gets out in the oil fields, and fishes for salmon” thing.

The Freudian/Oedipal connotations of this screed are pretty outrageous.

Whereas liberal men are more interested in marrying a woman with whom they have a deep emotional connection and enduring friendship, conservative men appear to want to marry a woman who fulfills a maternal role for them. A sexy, sexy maternal role.

The “dinner” scenario is the huge red flag: Robinson basically creates the “stay at home/good mommy” role of the right wing woman who knows to have dinner on the table by the time the husband (son) gets home with the “not at home/bad mommy” of the liberal woman who can’t get dinner on the table promptly at 6 because she’s not at home when her husband/son gets home. It’s more than a dogwhistle, it’s a pathology. Even if he’s not a master chef who can mince a clove of garlic in less than a minute, a grown man who finds that he’s home and there’s no dinner yet ready should know how to boil a pot of water and dump some spaghetti in, meanwhile opening a jar of spaghetti sauce and dumping it into a saucepan to warm up while the spaghetti boils. It’s really not that complicated. Hey, you can even get spaghetti sauce with the meat already in it!

But to “conservative men” like Robinson, the role of husband to wife is intrinsically that of the helpless dictator and the object that fulfills his needs and desires. So having a “conservative woman” who feeds him steak and forgets about carrots and tofu is basically like declaring that your mom lets you eat cake whenever you want and doesn’t make you eat your vegetables and do your homework (like a liberal wife/mom would). The fact that she cooks up the steak in heels is really just another way of saying that mom vacuums in her pearls. Because he cannot conceptualize the relationship of a man and a woman other than that of a mother and a son, he doesn’t understand that a liberal woman is often making these dietary and lifestyle choices in conjunction with her husband’s wishes, and not in spite of them, and that her husband finds her attractive, not her shoes. We’re supposed to be jealous of the charmed life that Robinson leads, but not question the deep cracks in the foundations of his mental and emotional life.

If you’re lucky, she just remembered to buy steak and forgot about the carrot entirely.

FFS. Aren’t you a little old to be whining about how you don’t want to eat your vegetables?

I think that article is pretty good. Any time I start to feel bad about myself as a man, I can read Mr. Robinson and realize there’s guys who are a million times more insecure and frustrated than I could ever imagine being in this or any other lifetime. And I will definitely start using “douche canoe”.

Just to note that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is not married to legitimate NFL star Matt Hasselbeck, starting quarterback of the Seahawks.  She is married to his less talented brother Tim Hasselbeck, career third string quarterback and now, apparently, co-host of an ESPN show about fantasy football.

I did not know that. I always thought it was Matt, so whenever I see hiim play I always want him to fail. Now I shall have to think nicer thoughts, because while it’s fine to not like someone because his wife is awful, having a bad SIL is really beyond his control.

It seems pretty obvious in hindsight that most people will find those that share their political alignment more attractive.  You’ll get along better.  I’m not perfectly aligned with my partner, but I don’t think we’ve ever voted for different candidates come election time (maybe once). 

Aren’t you a little old to be whining about how you don’t want to eat your vegetables?

Yeah, that was really offputting.  Yes, parsnips match steak better than carrots, but there’s no reason to slag carrots.

Opps.  Posting this in the right thread now”

“Her song “Sweet Surrender” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ldELCS6p1w) is essentially an ode to the pleasures of female sexual submission.”

Isn’t that song is about her stalker?  or am I thinking of another one?

A right-wing woman hits the gym, swings past Sobey’s and has dinner on the table by the time you get home ...

So a right wing woman is one who’s getting her living expenses paid for. Does it need to be payment from a private entity or would being on welfare count?

Gypsy Lee, you’re thinking of “Possession.”

Tofu is a pitiful excuse for nourishment, carrots taste like crunchy dirt, and women with hairy legs aren’t that attractive.  But who cares?  They make some people quite happy, and they’re welcome to them.  Same goes for high heels, makeup, brazilian waxes, plastic surgery, obsessive workouts, restrictive diets, yoga, running, rockclimbing, dildos and Von Dutch trucker caps.  Whatever it is, whether its for that person or for someone else, the only thing that bothers me about these things is when someone chooses to do something and then complains about how it’s expected.  Those are the would-be liberals trying to come out of a conservative shell, and they are either begging to be put back in their place or begging to be invited out.  Liberty isn’t granted, it’s taken.  Dolts like Ian Robinson certainly aren’t going to grant women their freedom, and smart people know they can’t grant it to anyone but themselves.

I’d take Kate Smith. With her voice she could yell for help and be heard!!!!

carrots taste like crunchy dirt

Are you a connoisseur of dirt?  Had a few dirt sandwiches in your life?

Is this why Mrs. James Carville seems to have vanished from sight?  They have deemed her too old and too opinionated as to be “unfuckable” despite her conservative cred?

Dana, the makeup is often a requirement so as not to look too “lesbian”.

I shit you not.  There is serious worry in women’s sports circles and these ladies are frequently subject to both image management and peer pressure because their sheer power threatens some segments of society.

I know women who have been subjected to this ... it is real, it happens, and it is totally sad.

Isn’t “Sweet Surrender” a clever vampire song?

Personally, I hate when women wear makeup. High heels drive me crazy (I’m 6’1”).

Be funny, you are sexy. Simple enough.

The big cities of conservative states are trending blue, Not Calgary.  It’s the only big city that doesn’t stick out of the surroundings like a sore thumb come election night.

Well, not in Federal Elections, but the Provincial Grits picked up some seats in Calgary last election, and our city council, minus McIver, is downright Liberal (Joe Ceci is like, the nicest politician in the world, and Bronco’s a prick, but he’s a left-leaning prick).

And this is real obvious, but we aren’t in America. Regionalist politics have always played better here than in the US. If we had a two-party system, it might be different.

Bad news, smokescreen.  Calgary is that conservative.  So much so that my socially liberal fiscally very conservative big business friend was shocked when he moved there some years ago.

Honestly, as a Calgarian, I’m offended. Toronto it ain’t, but if you live in the inner-city and don’t work for an Oil company, most people you’ll encounter will be pretty ordinary, and while they might ignore politics, they aren’t generally raving wingnuts.

Seriously, Smokescreen, Calgary’s an awesome place to live, once you get to know it.

Also: Read Micheal Platt’s Collumn in the Sun. He’s still a tabloid writer, but he’s it’s saving grace. And believe me, aside from a couple crazy columnists, the Sun is actually less right-wing than the Herald (which tries to make batshit crazy views seem respectable). Pretty much since Catherine Ford retired, the editorial page of the Herald’s gone downhill (actually, since the strike in 90s). Nigel Hannaford, longtime Herald collumnist and crazy anti-choicer, just got a gig as a speach-writer for Harper. Basically everyone I know gets local news from the CBC and from weeklies like FFWD (which is the best free weekly in the country) and Alberta Views, which is a great monthly magazine.

But really, I just want to emphasize: the average person you’ll meet in Calgary is propably more left-leaning, at least on social issues, than the average person in Southern Ontario outside of Toronto. Our political class is the craziest bunch of people in the country, but the average Calgarian is really just like anyone else. People tend to view the oil industry differently because we depend on it for our livelehood, but that’s the biggest difference. I will not let Calgary-bashing go unchallenged because it’s my home and it’s genuinely a wonderful place filled with awesome people.

The other big cities don’t fall into the regionalist trend the way Calgary does. Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Regina all have the vote distribution change radically from the outlying areas.  Out east, the same is true in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, London, whereever (okay, Quebec City is harder to discern).  Yeah, the “field” can be a little different logging and mining areas of Ontario being yellow, for instance, but Calgary is different in this regard.  Provincial parties aren’t federal parties, even when they’re officially aligned. Calgary is a lot more conservative than other cities it’s size, and it sticks out against the local background a lot less.

I, personally, enjoy the cognitive dissonance required to believe that liberals a) control Hollywood and b) have no attractive women among their ranks.

Edmonton regularily elects one or two liberals or NDP. Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Lloyd all are solid Tory blue (these aren’t metropolises, but they are cities). I really don’t think you can say that Calgary’s that different from any other city in Alberta because there’s a small part of inner-city Edmonton that votes differently.

More importantly though, voting behaviour doesn’t really say that much about the culture of a place, especially when voter turnouts are routinely in the 40% range. I don’t think a liberal has seriously tried to campaign in Calgary since the 70s, but there’s a lot of red tory sentiment. You might also remember that Joe Clark was able to hold on to his riding in Calgary after the reformers tried to destroy him.

HonestB
Yeah, but I have little sympathy for Red Tories who (federally, at least) don’t think of themselves as political nomads these days.  They took the Progressive out of Progressive Conservative, it was time for the progressives to leave the party.  Joe Clark stuck out his last session as a Progressive Conservative, while no such party existed.  I have a lot of Red Tory sentiment; I wouldn’t touch the Conservative Party with a 3.1 metre pole.

Federal voter turnout is 60-65% these days.  Yeah, the Liberals don’t try hard, for the same reason the Tories don’t try hard in Mount Royal; they know it’d be a waste of their time.  (Though I have seen the Tories try hard in Scarborough and North York, which is hilarious beyond words)  They reflect the general populus pretty well, though wealthy, educated, older people are overrepresented, of course.

“Apparently, we liberal women are supposed to be all butt hurt that Ian Robinson doesn’t want to marry us, which of course is like asking us to be sad because no one wants to take a piss in our eyes.  He suggests that all liberal women wear Birkenstocks while all conservative women wear Jimmy Choos.”

But what about the menz!!!! Actually I think this one is about us. It’s not meant to be read by liberal women or conservative women, because their opinions don’t matter to Douche Canoeist Robinson. It’s supposed to make us sissy liberal men feel bad for letting “our women” run wild with the thinking for themselves and the not being our (Oedipus’) mommies.

Why, we could be married to someone like Sarah! Palin! OMFGGG! BONERS!!! and have shitheads we don’t know elbow us and tell us ‘good job, heh, heh, buddy. You got a hot one.’ Because that would be awesome…. We’re judged on the hotness and superficial patriarchy compliance of the woman we’re with by Robinson and the ‘why mature beyond who I was at 14’ caucus. And we’re supposed to be ashamed and feel our balls shrink if he finds our walking accessory wanting and immediately jump up, stopping our sissy liberal ways and put said accessory in her place.

Why the guys who don’t need mommies to take care of us anymore now that we’re adults are the wimpy, sissified ones is left to the FSM to know, because I can’t figure it out.

I don’t think even Douche Canoeist is stupid enough to think this will convince women to do anything, he won’t lower himself to try to reason with such creatures. It’s precisely 17 times more sexist when you look at it this way, IMO. The guy who was trying to convince women that life in conservaland is great is at least talking to women. Talking to them like they’re morons (yeah, the sex is better if you and your husbands are both virgins, really), but talking to them.

As much as the solution to this stupidity is for guys to just laugh at people who try to shame us out of doing what we like by calling us “fag,” I gotta say my first reaction was to want to give a severe beating to the prairie-addled moron teach him a little lesson about keeping a civil tongue in his head about by my wife, my mother and my little sister, left-wingers, to varying degrees, all.

“Just to note that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is not married to legitimate NFL star Matt Hasselbeck, starting quarterback of the Seahawks.  She is married to his less talented brother Tim Hasselbeck, career third string quarterback and now, apparently, co-host of an ESPN show about fantasy football.”

And a little apropos of this discussion, Matt comes off as quite funny and charming in the media. I bet his lady, if he’s got one, got the better of the deal, as Tim is unmemorable personality-wise from his appearances on the four-letter network.

“I shit you not.  There is serious worry in women’s sports circles and these ladies are frequently subject to both image management and peer pressure because their sheer power threatens some segments of society.”

Ahh. I wondered about the amount of makeup too. I’ve been watching a lot more womens’ college b-ball, with the advent of more of it on TV (due in part to the much-maligned Big Ten Network) and Michigan State having some good womens’ teams. Seen some good games. (Especially last year. How’d you like them apples, Duke and McCallie?) It’s really noticeable when the Spartan’s 6’8” center, Alyssa DeHaan, wears a lot of makeup. I hope it’s for better reasons than you cite, but I don’t doubt you. People suck.

I like women in boots.

What, this isn’t all about me?
Crap… uhm… err… ok, counter argument to Ian Robinson.

Mark: Does anyone else here do that [=wear high-heeled shoes to be taller]?

One of the main appeals of non-flat shoes for me is that being 5’10” rules… 5’11” would be even better, but is a little unstable.

What I hate most about my non-flat shoes is the noise. Heels are loud, even on women who know how to walk in them. It puzzles me how “make a lot of noise” is regarded as a feminine behaviour.

I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women’s shoes that didn’t look like part of the required uniform for police SWAT teams. Sensible shoes are one thing ... quite another to don a pair that look like they’re meant for rappelling down the sides of buildings with a Heckler & Koch sniper rifle slung over your shoulder.

Considering where he went with this paragraph, I think he should have stopped at “I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women’s shoes”.

When I think “Birkenstock” I think of these sandals and believe me, just like any other kind of sandals, you do not want to be doing police work or rappelling or really anything besides hanging out in them.  Even if we move beyond sandals to shoes, only one of those looks appropriate for any of these activities.

Brian, Turnout in Alberta in the last federal election was only 52.9%, way below the national average (which was around 59). Left-wing Calgarians mostly just don’t bother voting because left-wing candidates don’t bother actually campaigning. When left-wing Calgarians do vote, they split between the Liberals, NDP and Greens almost evenly in a lot of ridings (there’s no incentive to vote strategically when you know your candidate won’t win).

Our political system, and particularily our party system, very much distort any indication of real political culture you can get from federal election data, which is why I’m pretty insistent that you can’t describe Calgary as a city by who we elect to parliament. The liberals have an enourmous image problem in Alberta (in a large part because they’ve never even tried to repair their image since the NEP, they just decided AB votes weren’t worth it), and what there was of liberal media in Alberta was destroyed in the 90s by Conrad Black. But I’m telling you as someone who actually lives here: inner city Calgary is like inner city anywhere in Canada. I have neighbours who are Italian, Jamaican, Croatian, Jewish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani. People bike everywhere. People shop at farmer’s markets and hippie organic stores. We have a thriving arts scene. There’s community gardens in lots of neighborhoods. People shop organic and fair trade. People go to protests. You’ll meet lots of left-wing Calgarians doing their best to live their ideals, they’re just too cynical to bother trying to vote them, and really, looking at our federal politicians, can you blame them?

Honestly, Calgary bashing is just as tired and ridiculous a meme on the left as Toronto bashing is on the right

he seems to be pretending that all conservative women are ann coulter. i’m sorry, walk into a wal mart anywhere in america: the dumpy, blah women you see who maybe were hot at some point but have just given up are not kicking and screaming over barack obama.

What an odious man. Nothing like valuing women for their attractiveness to men, and how well they serve their Lord and Master.

The manly-man eat steak thing just cracks me up.  Because my very masculine, former SHARP husband is the one who introduced me to tofu, and actually made it palatable.

I suppose Alberta ridings generally not being in play, a lower turnout should be expected.  I’m not bashing Calgary, but it is what it is.  I’ve no doubt there are a goodly number of progressively-oriented people there; just as there are a decent number of reactionary people in Vancouver. The percentages in the mixture is what’s interesting.  Riding data at the federal level is pretty telling, especially in cities, which tend to vote much moreso for the party than the local candidate. Now, it’s true that Calgary Centre ain’t Wild Rose, but it ain’t Edmonton Centre either (nevermind Vancouver Centre or Toronto Centre)

If you offered a wingnut male an opportunity to have dinner with, say, the current Playmate of the Month or Janeane Garofalo, he’d go for the Playmate every time. Progressive men would probably go for the brainy, funny woman with the Chuck Taylors and her original boobs.

Janeane Garofalo is so the opposite of a Playmate, she had a breast reduction—she had it done just before she started doing stand-up so her ginormous boobage wouldn’t be a distraction to her audiences.

Here in Minnesota, outside some pockets of chic in the Twin Cities area, the standard look for women, regardless of political leanings, tends toward sensible shoes, no-fuss hair, make-up-free faces, sweat-shirts, flannel shirts, Eddie Bauer… (There’s a joke about how hard it is to figure out who’s actually a lesbian in Minnesota.)

Adding to the list of conservative males who are actually attractive: our current governor, Tim Pawlenty. And Norm Coleman used to be cute, though he wasn’t a conservative at the time.

I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women’s shoes that didn’t look like part of the required uniform for police SWAT teams. Sensible shoes are one thing ... quite another to don a pair that look like they’re meant for rappelling down the sides of buildings with a Heckler & Koch sniper rifle slung over your shoulder.

Note: I would date a woman who dressed like a SWAT team member in a second.

In fact, I have.  http://tacticalcorsets.com/

When I think of “sensible shoes” in the pejorative sense, I think not of Birkenstocks (which say “I am outdoorsy and liberal!”) or SWAT team shoes, but rather of something like a pair of white sneakers worn by nurses in hospitals or by suburban moms to go with their minivan and mom jeans.

Also, any man over 40 knows to go heavy on the vegetables and light on the meat, otherwise he becomes the subject of an op-Ed written by his wife entitled “conservative men have large beer bellies.”

Wait, this is about Calgary? What does he expect women to wear the 6+ months of the year that high heels outdoors aren’t feasible?

Spring = puddles and slippery mud, Fall = puddles and slippery leaves, Winter = sub-zero temperatures and I haven’t yet seen a properly warm winter boot with a heel on it!*

Sensible in the winter on the praries (which technically Calgary is I believe… or does it count as desert in the rainshadow of the rockies?) should totally over-rule sexy if only because it’s the only way to keep your toes so you can wear heels when it’s more feasible!

*all the high heeled boots I see are ridiculously thin because that’s the only way they can stay up hugging the calf, and the sole is thin to manage the whole look (and possibly so that the heel is attached firmly and doesn’t appear out of proportion. I am of course willing to be dis-proved here, but I can’t imagine a boot rated for -20C or more that could be designed to keep the bottom of the foot warm against the wind and cold when there’s more than three inches between the foot and the ground… and I’m really trying to!

Probably not.

You know, I seriously doubt this fool understands that hiking boots and Birkenstocks are two different things.

Besides, who goes hiking in a tweed skirt?  Tweed skirts are usually narrow-cut and businesslike, and tend to hamper the gait.  Not the sort of gear one would voluntarily choose to take a long walk in, whether equipped with Birkenstocks, hiking boots or trainers.  (Robinson reveals that he’s talking about the businesslike variety of tweed skirt when he uses the adjective “knee-length”.  The kind of skirts women who hike like to walk in are almost always either long and full-cut or short and full-cut, so as to allow as much freedom to the legs as possible.  As a rule they’re made of rayon or cotton.  You know what this type of thing looks like if you’ve ever paged through an REI catalog.  I think Robinson has got the hippie-ecofeminist confused with the businesswoman-feminist stereotype, though I can’t prove it.)

In other words, this stuff isn’t just insulting, it’s bullshit.

And what is is with this thing (to conclude) which says that it’s great to do physical stuff, even that it’s of the essence to do phyiscal stuff, but that, in order to remain respectable, you can only do your physical stuff in a gym?  That, if you want to walk or run, you can only do it inside on a gerbil track, not out-of-doors on a trail?  I deeply, deeply need to have that one explained to me.

“That’s like telling me that I don’t have what it takes to be a chicken sexer, and therefore I’ll have to accept a career in the go-nowhere profession of being paid a mil a year to be awesome.  Okay, I’ll pretend to cry, as long as you don’t renege on the deal.”

FWIW, Amanda, your snark makes my day. That and the phrase “douche canoe.”

A common misconception.  Tofu is not food; it is a spice delivery system.  Anyone who thinks otherwise has never tried my spicy tofu with peppers, garlic scapes, peas, mushrooms, and more peppers.

The other common misconception is that tofu can’t be mixed with meat.  A little bit of ground pork does wonders for tofu dishes.

God, now I want some mapo doufu…

Tofu is not food; it is a spice delivery system.

Much like stuffing is simply a matrix for gravy.

What I found absolutely ridiculous in the article was that he’s dismissed the really far, far right religious conservatives.  Who claim that wearing anything but a dress is sinful, said dress is to come BELOW the knee, and heels are verboten. 

Living in a community where there are a lot of “homeschooling for religious reasons” families, a large majority of them dress in what some have termed the homeschool mom uniform: below knee non-fitted jumper over t-shirt or turtleneck depending on weather, hair pulled into a bun, no makeup or jewelry, and either gym shoes or flat, often with athletic or other short socks instead of hose.  No exception made for any activity (imagine watching one try to ride a horse and stay “modest”?)

Well, according to this, Calgary has an annual rainfall of 399 mm, which translates into desert country out here on the Pacific Slope, but it’s one of the sunniest of Canadian cities, so there’s that as well.

As for ground pork and tofu, use a 4:1 ratio of soy sauce to a good white wine along with a few slices of ginger root,  and you’re making Chinese home cooking, FWIW

Ms Kate wrote:

Bloockquote>Dana, the makeup is often a requirement so as not to look too “lesbian”.</blockquote>

Last time I knew, playing three to five sets of volleyball would make you perspire, rather a lot.  Wouldn’t a volleyball player who’s sweating have the perspiration run down her forehead, and into her eyes, and get the mascara or whatever she was wearing into her eyes, hurting her ability to compete?

What I found absolutely ridiculous in the article was that he’s dismissed the really far, far right religious conservatives.  Who claim that wearing anything but a dress is sinful, said dress is to come BELOW the knee, and heels are verboten.

As has been harped on a long time, we’re talking about Calgary.  While there is some religious zealotry in the Canadian far right, by and large the Canadian Right isn’t particularly religious.  Just a pretty straight “private business = good, government = bad” philosophy.

Most of the conservative women I know are fundamentalists - as in, they wear loose dresses and head-coverings because they believe the best adornment possible is “a meek and quiet spirit.” And they all wear sensible shoes.

I think most of them would rather have piss in their eyes than come anywhere near the author of this article. They serve a patriarchal ideal, but they would still see his attitude towards woman as profoundly disrespectful.

He would also be seen as providing inadequate protection for his wife in encouraging her to go out in provocative attire and damaging footwear.

His inability to separate out character from looks from political affiliation should make him undesirable to any woman, regardless of her beliefs.

Geez, if the message were just ‘I’m poor, but I love my girlfriend’ like the first three sentences of the song imply…

...But noOo, it has to go and make up retchable misogynist phrases for the rest of the song.

Ugh.

We’re judged on the hotness and superficial patriarchy compliance of the woman we’re with by Robinson

This is completely anecdotal I know, but the only women I’ve ever known to go out of their way to publicly humiliate their spouses were extremely conservative.  And I don’t mean that they vote Republican most of the time.  I mean that they’re extremely right wing fundamentalist types.  My father’s fourth wife was the most rabid conservative and the only female misogynist I’ve ever personally known, and she seemed to delight in humiliating him in public.

Well, Dana, perhaps the ladies were using something like this:

Madygirl Mineral Foundation has a high SPF factor and is nearly waterproof. It’s an excellent sports make-up and is also ideal for women with active lifestyles.

Link

article.  Not song.  Argh.  You had me reading the article in rhyme!

As has been harped on a long time, we’re talking about Calgary.  While there is some religious zealotry in the Canadian far right, by and large the Canadian Right isn’t particularly religious.  Just a pretty straight “private business = good, government = bad” philosophy.

We have an active religious right in Alberta, including a snake-handling church. Our fundamentalists are really a diverse group, though, with a variety of beliefs and practices. Nonetheless, pretty much all of them, including the Plain People who eschew most modern conveniences and reject government social programs such as welfare (because they take care of their own poor), still support universal health care.

The fundamentalists’ political influence is limited, but their humanitarian activities can be felt throughout Edmonton’s inner city, where conservative and liberal Christians (and atheists etc. - anyone who wants to help is encouraged to do so) work together on programs such as the Hope Mission Ministry Van, a converted ambulance that goes out every night - especially in winter - to check on the homeless who sleep out-of-doors and in tents scattered throughout the river valley. They’re linked up with our local 911 centre, which dispatches them for “man down” calls to collect homeless people in distress.

(It’s not all light and sunshine, alas; we also have a couple of crisis pregnancy centres that insist on misleading their “clients.”)

The religious conservatives here would, if they ever encountered this man, be inclined to ignore him - either that, or a few of the older men might accuse him of gross immaturity.

Dana, I agree that it makes no sense and isn’t logical - problem is, female athletes in collegiate sports are under pressure from both peers and image stylists to present in female ways.  The WNBA has been doing the same sort of thing - of course it’s all hidden under the rubric of “marketability”.

I have yet to see a pair of Birkenstock women’s shoes that didn’t look like part of the required uniform for police SWAT teams.

I’d like to know where he saw those. I used to get Birkenstocks from my employer as part of my work clothes because I was working with ESD sensitive equipment, and Birkenstock does sell shoes with conductive filaments in them. The other job where Birkies are commonly worn is nursing.

The main drawbacks of Birkenstocks are 1. bad for running and climbing, and 2. the owner of the company is very anti-union.

on tofu: What I most dislike about tofu is that it’s used for fakery. I mean, you can roast chicory roots and call it “coffee”, and you can grind and spice up tofu and call it “hamburger”, but all you get from it is really bad coffee and really bad hamburger and a undeserved bad reputation for chicory and tofu.

bekabot #119: Besides, who goes hiking in a tweed skirt?

Edwardian re-enactors?

Does any one else think its strange that he is glorifying moral modest conservative women who wear fuck me heels?

They’re only “fuck me” heels when wanton, immodest liberal sluts wear them.

It’s just like how comfortable, flat shoes are for both common-sense, hard-working conservative women and dumpy, boring liberal women.

This is a feature, not a bug.

The difference between the two is not what shoes they wear, but whether they wear them because they want to or because they’re supposed to, as defined by the whims or any particular man at any given time.

That way guys like this can look at their wives’ footwear and declare them boring, humdrum, and unsexy, unwilling to put any effort into pleasing their man.  This becomes justification for their infidelity.  If she wanted him to be faithful, she should have put forth more effort to be sexy.

Conversely, his mistresses’ high heels and continuous efforts to appeal to him sexually mark her as a tawdry slut.  He needn’t, therefore, concern himself if he gives her a disease, gets her pregnant, or even whether she consents to sex at all.  If she wanted to be treated like a respectable woman, she should dress modestly.

It isn’t about shoes.  It’s about whether a woman is willing to play a game designed so she cannot win.

In fact, I have.  http://tacticalcorsets.com/

Comment #114: NBarnes

Thanks NBarnes.  You found me this year’s x-mas present for the girlfriend.

Let me see if I can make sense of Ian Robinson’s rant that conservative women are hotter than liberal women.

Let’s see, Obama won the 18-30 year old demographic by almost 2 to 1 and lost the over 65’s. Since women, on the whole vote Democratic more than men, and even moreso for single women, then by Robinson’s logic, over-65 widows are hotter than young, single women.

Huh!?

Who knew that Conservatives were such champions in the fight against ageism?!

Three words: Tammy Faye Baker.  I’m fairly certain that that repulsive quivering heap of make up and cellulite would have come down on the rightward end of the political spectrum, but even the author of the piece would probably concede that a mere glimpse at an image of her face would be enough to murder the most robust erection.

Oh, I’m sorry. I thought this was a feminist blog. Someone might want to rent The Eyes of Tammy Faye and One Punk Under God if someone’s interested in learning something more about the woman than her cosmetic habits.

over-65 widows are hotter than young, single women

The last thing we need is a conservative remake of Harold and Maude.

Then again, WEALTHY widows have a certain something about them that a certain sort of younger man might find usef ... er ... attractive!

Revrick wrote:

Let’s see, Obama won the 18-30 year old demographic by almost 2 to 1 and lost the over 65’s. Since women, on the whole vote Democratic more than men, and even moreso for single women, then by Robinson’s logic, over-65 widows are hotter than young, single women.

Huh!?

Who knew that Conservatives were such champions in the fight against ageism?!

Well, I know one 56 year old man who wouldn’t trade his almost 50 year old wife in for a 22 year old hottie, even if said 22 year old hottie was actually interested.

Well, I know one 56 year old man who wouldn’t trade his almost 50 year old wife in for a 22 year old hottie, even if said 22 year old hottie was actually interested.

Yes, Dana, we get it. Thank you for reminding us that you are married, and that you have a hot wife who is no doubt your best friend, so much so that it is easy easy easy for you to resist come ons from women who could be your daughters.

Right on, big guy!

Yes, Dana, we get it. Thank you for reminding us that you are married, and that you have a hot wife who is no doubt your best friend, so much so that it is easy easy easy for you to resist come ons from women who could be your daughters.

Your cynicism is kind of unfortunate.

Molly (70):

If you offered a wingnut male an opportunity to have dinner with, say, the current Playmate of the Month or Janeane Garofalo, he’d go for the Playmate every time. Progressive men would probably go for the brainy, funny woman with the Chuck Taylors and her original boobs.

Meh. Garofalo lost my respect when she was in The Wild.

Dana (143):

Well, I know one 56 year old man who wouldn’t trade his almost 50 year old wife in for a 22 year old hottie, even if said 22 year old hottie was actually interested.

Well, that’s not hypocricy, because I actually don’t expct any better from Dana.

The big cities of conservative states are trending blue,

Not Calgary.  It’s the only big city that doesn’t stick out of the surroundings like a sore thumb come election night.

Which may be one of the funniest parts of this whole article. Calgary, pretty much the conservative capital of Canada… and probably the last city people would state that beautiful women are from… unless they’re from Calgary. 

The whole thing sounds like a big ol’ snit over the fact that Montreal women are always esteemed to be “the most attractive in Canada”. Of course it’s very liberal and bilingual. Both French and English speaking people living and working together (conservative nightmare right there). It’s a similar reaction to American conservatives who get all pissy over liberal New York City being a cultural capital of the US.

(Of course Calgary would technically be blue as that is the colour of the Conservative Party, or maybe whatever colour the Wildrose Alliance is?)

Yeah, Canadian fashion is concentrated in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto—all bigger than Calgary, and all three LOATHED by Canadian right-wingers. 

I don’t doubt that Calgary is actually quite multi-ethnic and reasonably cosmopolitan at this point, but Alberta’s right-wingers haven’t caught up with that.

Sarcastro—you’re doing stuffing wrong. Stuffing with gravy is awesome, but good stuffing (bread, cornbread, butter, onions, broth, celery, sage…) is made from the tastiest stuff on earth.

I can’t wait to thanksgiving….

I’m reminded of this line from Don Juan In Hell episode from Man and Superman by Bernard Shaw:

DON JUAN. Oh, come! Confidence for confidence. First tell me what you used to say to the ladies.

THE STATUE. I! Oh, I swore that I would be faithful to the death; that I should die if they refused me; that no woman could ever be to me what she was—

ANA. She? Who?

THE STATUE. Whoever it happened to be at the time, my dear. I had certain things I always said. One of them was that even
when I was eighty, one white hair of the woman I loved would make me tremble more than the thickest gold tress from the most beautiful young head. Another was that I could not bear the thought of anyone else being the mother of my children.

DON JUAN. [revolted] You old rascal!

THE STATUE. [Stoutly] Not a bit; for I really believed it with all my soul at the moment. I had a heart: not like you. And it was this sincerity that made me successful.

DON JUAN. Sincerity! To be fool enough to believe a ramping, stamping, thumping lie: that is what you call sincerity! To be so greedy for a woman that you deceive yourself in your eagerness to deceive her:
sincerity, you call it!

I can’t see myself with a woman in her 20s instead of my 43-year old wife, mainly because she’d have to be pretty brainy if I were to find her interesting for more than a short-term relationship, and second, because it’s unseemly at best and only an attempt to prop up a declining male ego at worse.

(Of course Calgary would technically be blue as that is the colour of the Conservative Party, or maybe whatever colour the Wildrose Alliance is?)

Mea Culpa.  Obvious Calgary is blue as blue can be, and’ll elect a pig in a blue tie.  Yeah, I used the American vocabulary, and ought to be chastised.  American political terminology can be one of the most difficult parts of reading this blog; but I can’t imagine how to make things readable in Canadian vocabulary for the mostly American audience.  For instance, look at the use of “conservative” around here; I’m extremely loath to identify as conservative, even though I am, in a Joe Clark/Bill Davis/Danny Williams kind of way; I can’t imagine anything those guys have done that’d be identified as “conservative”.

Yeah, Canadian fashion is concentrated in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto—all bigger than Calgary, and all three LOATHED by Canadian right-wingers.
Ontarians thinking they’re the centre of the universe is pretty cliche, but I’m pretty sure Canadian fashion radiates outward from Kenora.  Babies there, I’m told, are born wearing Canadian Tuxedos.

I say liberals should turn it around.

Barack Obama or John McCain?
Sean Penn or Chuck Norris?
JFK or Richard Nixon?

Conclusion: conservative men are ugly. (Sorry, Dana.)

Brian: Kenora? I’ve been to Kenora and there’s nothing there except for a lake, which are a dime a dozen in that area. And it’s WAY too close to Winnipeg to be awesome, right?

Heh. My bro married Conservative Woman. She was sort of hot and wore sexy shoes. Then she had her first child, quit her career (expecting him to make enough money to buy the next house and a Cadillac SUV), cut her long blond styled hair into a mom-bob, and starting wearing sweat pants/mom jeans and sneakers. And now all she does whine all day on Facebook about how the kids are driving her crazy. She does not read or have a single interesting thing to say. She’s bored, but she’ll never go back to work. Bro isn’t making the massive salary she was counting on, so she nags and bitches. So he’s started taking evening guitar lessons, and I don’t think the point of them is really to learn guitar. And she mocks him publicly for it, because apparently real men care about only about stuff like lawns and barbecuing and watching televised sports.

Lesson: Obviously, C.W. is just the ideal mate, no question. Don’t know what I was thinking, not finding one for myself.