Of Course We Have To Call Elena Kagan Fat Now
Okay, I know almost nothing about Elena Kagan at this point, except what Jezebel told me. So this isn’t about politics. It’s about the fact that as soon as I saw her picture, I knew exactly what was coming: fat jokes.
A random sampling:
First Impressions: Kagan looks like a fat drag queen.
Yeash that Elena Kagan is another fat dychy type! Are there just endless fat, short haired woman in the Dem establishment?
no disrespect intended but man is Kagan is a fat, ugly bitch
Yeah, there are plenty more. By far the most popular is calling her a fat version of [dude], including Matthew Broderick, Kevin James, Chris Farley, and “Fat Bastard” from Austin Powers. Also, the data (i.e. me glancing at user pics) would suggest that most of the people spouting this crap are men. No better way to take a powerful woman down than call her fat, right?
Thanks for the people calling this out, for instance:
@shorterstory Come on, @theDailyBeast, why call your #Kagan roundup Big Fat Story except for frat boy smirking? http://bit.ly/daurQV #shameonyou
@SaraLibby Cringing at the first Kagan-is-fat joke to pop up on my Twitter feed.
All I know is, a male nominee would not have all of this knee-jerk patriarchal bullshit directed at them, and it pisses me off. What slams were made on John Roberts’s physical appearance? Yeah, right, none.
Posted by mo pie
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Very true, males don’t receive these kind of rude comments nearly as much as women. People are always trying to bring down women that establish themselves in a position of power. As much as I hate to say it though…there is a striking resemblance between her and Kevin James.
Men get critiqued on their politics.
Women get critiqued on their looks, their lifestyle, whether they have kids, whether they don’t have kids, what books they like to read, and sundry other BS. Their actual opinions? Afterthought.
Those people, and I am being kind, need to grow up and stop with the alpha male crap. Geeze, and are any of these guys looking like George Clooney? I think not.
I just had a complete meltdown on the phone with my boyfriend about this and of course he thinks i’m overreacting because this happens all the time. people just always go for the lowest common denominator when trying to insult a person. I disagree with him. perhaps I am biased as someone that has always felt as though I had to work twice as hard and be twice as amazing to stand out for my non physical talents but I think that women get the brunt of the “lowest common denominator” bullshit and men just get called out on making poor decisions which are much more relevant to their actual status in regards to politics. I am so full of rage over this, I could honestly slap any one of those commenters right across their smug little faces.
“no disrespect intended but man is Kagan is a fat, ugly bitch”
Wow. What would intentional disrespect sound like, then?
Why don’t these people ever have anything to say about Justices Scalia and Thomas, who are both carting around quite a bit of extra poundage under those concealing A-line robes?
I know nothing about the politics here. What I do know is that this is just incredibly uncool. It bothers the hell out of me that it leaps from this woman (who is no more than outside of the “acceptable” size in the public eye) as a human being and her qualities as a leader, to how she is fat, and assumptions on her sexuality.
What would it even matter if she was gay? It sure as hell shouldn’t, and neither should her weight.
And there is a SERIOUS double standard here – has anyone seen people commenting on how “fat” the men in the Supreme Court are? I sure haven’t seen that.
Who ARE these people, and what rude, crass planet sicced them on us?
Miss Kagan looks like a perfectly ordinary American woman. The idea of checking out a Supreme Court nominee as if she were a potential Playmate of the Month, well – what kind of teensy little mind DOES that? And please don’t say “Republicans”; you can’t assign blame just because you dislike someone’s politics.
As to fat guys on the Court, the first one that comes to mind is William Howard Taft, a fellow so large that a custom-built bathtub had to be installed for his use in the White House during his term. How many nasty cracks did people make about THAT?
Leave the sniping about Miss Kagan to the Senate committee, as in: will she be a good addition to the Court?
You know, I think I want to take on ‘dychy’ as a self-descriptor. It makes me feel like European quasi-royalty – perhaps I preside over a very queer Duchy?
Comments about appearance are meant to wound women more than they do men, and they’re generally more successful at wounding. But because it’s ‘just’ superficial, it’s not taken seriously as an attack, even though it’s significantly derailing.
This is a large part of why I defend my obsession with patriarchy and pop culture – obsessing over Britney’s airbrushing isn’t earth-shattering, but it contributes to a society where a female SCOTUS nominee has to develop defenses a male colleague wouldn’t, exacerbating gender imbalances that have a lot more political impact on our lives.
Sadly, I’m guessing that Kagan’s dealt with this kind of bullshit on a small scale over the course of her career, and as an attorney, she’s probably developed a thick skin. I feel badly for the people those commenters go home to at night – being mean on the internet rarely seems to end once the monitor’s off.
I am also incredibly irritated that people feel the need to speculate about whether or not she is a lesbian, simply because she is 50 years old and not married. I know many, many people who did not marry (or did not do so until later) because they were busy doing other things with their life in the 20’s and 30’s, like going to grad school or building their professional life. I can see how being the Dean of the law school at Harvard might keep you kind of busy. So whether people think it’d be a good thing or a bad thing, the fact is there is no evidence to even debate here. So it’s driving me CRAZY. (Sorry this wasn’t exactly the subject of this post. I’ve been crazy all day about this and saw a place to vent.)
This type of thing always grosses me out. Why does it matter if she’s short or fat or single or has three extra hands growing out of her forehead if she can DO THE JOB? Politics should not be a beauty contest. I don’t understand why that’s such a foreign notion to some people.
And like others have said, it’s so much worse for women. They’re picked apart and judged in ways that their male counterparts are never subject to.
Uh there are a LOT of commenters on that TMZ page that rush to the defense of Ms. Cagan and chastise other commenters who insult her. If you’re going to post the negative ones- you kind of need to post the positive ones too. Otherwise you’re telling the story in a way that really only suits your needs. It makes me highly skeptical when things like that get left out. It means an agenda is being pushed.
I should have been clearer: I didn’t read the comments on the TMZ page. I searched for “Kagan” on Twitter. I think it’s great that people on TMZ are calling out this behavior.
I agree with Ashley! As far as I know, Justice David Souter never married, and no one speculated about his orientation. I hope Kagan snows ’em during her conformation!
Oops , I meant “confirmation”. Sorry.
I remember reading an article in Newsweek or Time when Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court that hinted about his sexual orientation, so it was brought up then, not that behavior then justifies behavior now. Personally, I don’t care, Souter was a terrific Justice and based on the little I know about Kagan, I hope she gets confirmed.
It’s appalling that people’s first instinct is to judge Kagan on her looks instead of her qualifications.
But I disagree that a fat male nominee wouldn’t be subject to comments about his weight…the difference is he would have to be much heavier than Kagan for that to happen.
When people don’t have any legitimate complaints to make, they resort to insulting others based on how they look.
Unless those others are women. Because how we look is of utmost importance, right? And, sorry, a lot of this has been made acceptable by people like Rush Limbaugh and his ilk; the talking heads who, for lack of anything of substance to say, resort to this kind of crap.
And, yes, Hollywood and Madison Ave. have a huge hand in this, as well.
(I also don’t consider Limbaugh, Fox News, etc. to be representative of REAL republicans. But I’m a democrat, so I don’t really know.)
The first sign of the downfall of any great society is when its citizens revel in their ignorance and cruelty. I think we’re in serious trouble.
People are jackasses, every one of them, and I hate them all. But give Daily Beast a break: that section of their site is always called “Big Fat Story” regardless of the subject.
Politics aside, my wife said that Kagan’s awkward appearance is obvious, and anyone who doesn’t see it is either blind or in denial.
I seen her on the news before knowing anything about her. I was struck by her peculiar appearance before the report got to the point of who she was. Aside from her politics and her profession, simply commenting on a random person’s appearance, I understand why so many people were confused about her gender.
Once I found out why she was in the news, I thought that Obama might have been picking a transgendered person just to make a point. After a moderate amount of research, I concur that she will make a good judge… but that will not change the unrelated fact that she looks like Fred Flintstone wearing earrings.
I don’t understand why people are walking on eggshells about this matter. Lots of political figures’ appearances are frequently the brunt of jokes.
Are you kidding me??? Why is her appearance getting so much attention? She’s an average working middle-aged woman! She seems to be tidy, professional and clean, so why are so many people dragging her down? I’m not even a fan of Ms. Kagan, but can we be just a little less superficial? They didn’t do this to Madeline Albright or Hillary, did they?