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| I love my husband, but Oh you kid! |
Anyway, that thought led me to wonder whether Rachel Maddow was a gay vegan (thinking not). Next thing you know, I'm thinking, "Why the hell do I like Rachel Maddow so much?" A bit of investigation reveals that shitloads of people like Rachel Maddow. I mean as in, like like. Crush, infatuation, swooning, a "Gay for Rachel" meme, all that. I fell hard for her by the end of the second sentence she pronounced on MSNBC. Not only am I not gay (kind of butch, but still on this side of the number line so far) - but I don't even watch TV. What is it about her?
I looked further into it and found this excellent analysis, part of "The Rachel Papers" by Joanna Widner, published in !@#$%^&* Magazine. Widner explores this Maddow mania, why we appear to have gone "Gay for Rachel," and cautions against subscribing to the notion that because she became so widely liked, that we are somehow in a "post-gay" era, in the way that we might wrongly take Obama and Hillary's successes to mean we live in a post-racist, post-feminist world. I agree with Widner's assertion that what makes these people magnetically attractive/interesting/compelling to large numbers of people, from all possible flavors of life - is their own rare star power, their simple awesomeness. Rachel is physically attractive (her androgyny appeals to a wide swath of people), but more importantly, she's also devastatingly smart, hilarious, well-mannered, and can verbally outfence anybody in the room. Now that is sexy. But it would be a mistake to think that we're past the point of needing to work on issues relating to gender, race, or women, just because we're under the spell of some very unique and compelling personalities.
Would I have gone gay for Rachel, if I hadn't married a wonderful man long ago? Quite possibly...but it's because they both possess characteristics most attractive to me: they're both articulate, super-smart, and funny. And they both like girls and look cute in glasses.
3 comments:
It's kind of funny, but I agree with you on the attractiveness scale related to the charm and wit. Those are clearly appealing traits for interaction on any scale. But, however appealing I find her intellectually, I don't go in much for androgyny. I think she looks like Noah Wylie (formerly of E.R. fame) and, maybe I have a mental block, but I can never tell when a man is attractive. Pam and the girls have to tell me. I guess I was just never meant to be gay.
Noah Wyle! Sean had pet names for everybody on ER, and I believe Wyle's character was "Dr. Pointy." Harsh my mellow, why don't you? I still think she's an awfully cute man-lady.
It's funny because my Mom really doesn't like her, which I find odd. She's been getting more conservative in her old age. I would have thought that her performance against the Pat Buchanan's of the world would have generated some appreciation of her obvious intelligence and wit, which is what I like about her. Dr. Pointy notwithstanding :).
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