Breaking News – Obama Golfs with Woman

Posted by Enrique on 10.28.2009

The feminine touch



Violence continues to escalate in Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama reviews the unattractive options involved in managing the War Everyone Used to Love™ (myself included). Meanwhile, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that government-subsidized health insurance is still on the table. The American employment market remains stagnant. At any moment, Nancy Pelosi could start making a fuss. It's a dark time for the empire.

So let's forget all that and turn now to the vexing question – is Obama's White House too much of a boy's club? But more importantly – why won't girls just let boys have our fun?

The story so far…



As you may recall, circa 2002 the New York Times gave page one coverage to the Augusta Golf Club's refusal to admit female members. Given the NYT's history of advocating women interfering with men's free time, it's no surprise last week it ran an article fretting over a perceived lack of gender diversity within the Obama administration, as evidenced by a recent informal basketball game the president played with various members of Congress and Cabinet:

[President Obama] presides over a White House rife with fist-bumping young men who call each other "dude" and testosterone-brimming personalities like Rahm Emanuel, the often-profane chief of staff; Lawrence Summers, the brash economic adviser; and Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, who habitually speaks in sports metaphors.

The technical foul over the all-male game has become a nagging concern for a White House that has battled an impression dating to the presidential campaign that Mr. Obama's closest advisers form a boys' club and that he is too frequently in the company of only men — not just when playing sports, but also when making big decisions.

While the senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is undeniably one of the president's closest White House confidantes, some women inside or close to the administration complain that Mr. Obama's female advisers are not as visible as their male colleagues or, they suspect, as influential.

The writer is someone named Mark Leibovich, and you have to admit it's mighty cunning of the NYT to use a male reporter for this article. Where were you on that, Mark? And they say Fox isn't a legitimate news organization. When asked about the propriety of the all-male basketball game, Obama responded with the closest thing to straight talk we're likely to see from an overperforming Chicago politician:

"I think this is bunk," Obama said. He explained that he invited the regular House of Representatives pick-up basketball players. "I don't know if there are women who— were Members of Congress who play basketball on a regular basis," Obama said. "I don't think there are. You know, I don't think sends any kind of message or signal whatsoever."

Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one – women don't typically play basketball for fun. As you may be aware, men and women tend to have fundamentally different interests. Men like recreational activities that involve an element of competition. Personally, I like to race remote control cars at a local private track, a pastime with relatively little appeal to women. Men are also more likely than women to enjoy playing video games with each other. By contrast, activities women prefer include watching reality television shows and talking about their feelings. We just want different things.

In an effort to make amends with his obstreperous feminist constituency, President Obama went golfing with one of his few high-ranking female staffers, domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes. I'm sure Barnes is a splendid golfer, and the message seemed to be "we're moving in the right direction," which should appease anyone who might get the vapors over the administration's alleged frat house vibe. Recalling the NYT Augusta vendetta, there seems to be a perception that men who like to golf are up to something sinister. Are we really supposed to believe men's preference for playing golf without women is some kind of affront to contemporary feminism? Is there a massive herd of female executives who have been denied advancement opportunities at their firms because they don't play golf with male executives? It's just a round of golf, ladies – don't be so sensitive.

Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, seems to buy into the whole golf-outing-as-oblique-sexism meme. Earlier this week she told ABC News, "Relationships get built in those more informal settings, and the relationships have a huge impact on the influence an individual has." Well, of course – people build personal relationships around common interests. If anything, that means more women should take up golf, instead of complaining they're being excluded from golf outings. How can you build a relationship with someone when they're trying to interfere with a hobby you enjoy and they don't? Since relatively few women like playing sports, NOW's position is, in effect, Obama should stop golfing and playing basketball because women don't like doing that. Instead, he should adjust his hobbies to the interests of girls. It's almost as if women want to force men into doing things their way, rather than make an effort to take men's interests seriously. I wonder if anyone's ever experienced that before.

Periodically you'll see media stories that ask "Why aren't more women doing [insert male-dominated activity]?" with the implication that men are treating girls unfairly. Vanity Fair just had an article – tied to David Letterman's recent indiscretions – asking why aren't there more female comedy writers in television? (Answer: Because most women aren't funny, but that's a subject for another time.) I've also read more than one article lamenting the fact relatively few women write for blogs and websites. In fact, you may have noticed 411mania has relatively few female writers (other than the music zone's Vanessa Willoughby, I'm not aware of anyone else). It's not because 411 is trying to be a boy's club, I assure you. Female blogger Melissa Clouthier recently opined on why there are fewer women bloggers, while social media networks have a relatively high number of female users:

The Internet still feels like the Wild West. There are some safe homesteads–social media, for example. Consider: On Facebook, a woman can decide who she wants to connect with and who she wants to keep out. On Twitter, a woman who feels wrongly attacked can block the attacker. […]

When it comes the arena of ideas, the women who blog are not typical women. Over and over, the women who blog are tougher. Like the shotgun wielding Western expansionists of yore, women bloggers take shots and can shoot back. [...]

In addition, women often don't like the intellectual jousting. Part of it is gender wiring. Men see verbal sparring as a testosterone-fueled challenge. Women see degraded communication and hostility. When they put an idea out there, it seems aggressive when someone rips the point of view to shreds. And, it is aggressive.

When one discusses controversial topics on the internet, many people will respond rudely. And it's regrettably true that when the writer is female, those rude responses frequently involve derogatory sexual remarks. That's disappointing, but Clouthier's broader argument rings true – men simply aren't as likely to be offended by obnoxious criticism as women. Men are competitive by nature. Women are less so. Such is life.

You'd think after a few decades of gender equality, women would stop feeling threatened when men don't pay attention to them. While it may appear that men go golfing to get away from women, the fact is almost all men wouldn't mind golfing with women as long as they had a genuine interest in it. But if women are just trying to barge in on men's free time because they're insecure, somehow I doubt they'll be able to build healthy professional/personal relationships.