The Merchants of Shame
Two weeks ago my restorative slumber was rudely aborted by the shattering opening chords of “Search and Destroy” by the Stooges, the ringtone I have assigned to CounterPunch’s intrepid co-editor Joshua Frank. This must be serious, I said to Boomer the Aussie as I stumbled for the iPhone. Josh is a committed texter. He only calls during a moment of crisis or after he’s caught a big wave down at Bolsa Chica, which all-too-often amounts to the same thing.
“Speak!”
“Have you checked your email recently?”
“You know my rule, Josh, no emails before coffee or after Mojitos.”
“Well, have a drink. We’re under siege.”
“Tequila will do in a pinch.” I pour and swallow. Pour again and swallow. “Who is it now? The ADL again or the Sierra Club?”
“Neither. It’s the Trotskyists. Trots of the ISO subspecies to be exact.”
“Remind me what ISO stands for?”
“International Socialist Organization. Up in Chicago.”
“Right, right. Are we Trots?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Doug Henwood just wrote that we were Edward Abbeyists.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“He didn’t mean it as a compliment.”
“What does he know? He hasn’t left his apartment in the last 12 years.”
“What’s our crime?”
“Sexism, insensitivity and crudeness of mind.”
“How did we provoke this indictment?”
“By the use of the word ‘tit’ in a subhead.”
“Did we use the word ‘tit’ in a subhead?”
“No. But Ruth Fowler did.”
“In her caustic takedown of Angelina Jolie, the CIA’s favorite action hero?”
“Right.”
“So why is that our problem?”
“Because we allowed her to use that word.”
“What did they want us to do?”
“Change the word ‘tit’ to another word.”
“Which word?”
“They don’t say.”
“Why can’t we use the word ‘tit’ in a subhead? Or even a full-blown headline, if we feel like it?”
“Because it sexualizes Angelina Jolie.”
“More than Angelina sexualized herself in ‘Gia’ or ‘Original Sin’?”
“Apparently so.”
“But why can’t Ruth use the word ‘tit’? She’s a big time writer. Sold more books than any of those ISOers. Maybe all of them combined.”
“Fowler can use the word, but we can’t print it. Because we’re, well, men.”
“So, we’re supposed to correct Ruth Fowler’s word choice for her?”
“Yep.”
“The two of us, both male editors, are supposed to commit an editorial intervention on her prose? She’s from Wales, right?”
“Yep.”
“She has a Master’s Degree from Cambridge, right?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Her vocabulary is probably twice ours combined, Josh. We’re just a couple of hicks from Montana and Indiana.”
“I’m reminded of that every day.”
“Sounds damn presumptuous to me, Josh, even, dare I say, sexist.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“What the fuck do the Trots want us to do?”
“Apologize.”
“Apologize to whom? Angelina Jolie? Does Angie still read CounterPunch after that piece Alex and I wrote about her rather peculiar relationship with Billy Bob?”
“Not exactly. They want us to apologize to all women.”
“All of them?”
“That’s what...
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