Here's an "insight" I received from someone who read "The Charm of Fanhood." I'm passing it on, because it was unloaded on me. By a woman reader.
The reader picked up on the reference to "girls," and decided maybe there was a "sexist" (her word) bias going on in BP. My reader decided that the way Roxy Ross has been treated by some around here could betray sexism. Let's examine that idea.
As best I can tell, Steve Bernard thinks he had something to do with Roxy's having been elected. But he probably also had something to do with Bryan Cooper's having been elected. He may have treated both of them like irrelevant underlings, but there is nothing to suggest he would have treated Roxy with less "respect" than he showed Bryan. He gave Roxy vastly more trouble-- trainloads for her, as opposed to none for Bryan-- but we have every reason to think it's because she crossed him by accepting the Mayoralty and not being a dutiful sycophant, not because she's a woman. It's true that Bryan is a male, but he is a dutiful sycophant, so no reason to think his gender is what spares him from Steve's vilification. And I think we have every reason to imagine Steve would have been just as incensed if Bryan had stolen the throne out from under him.
And Bryan has given Roxy lots of trouble, too. But again, she betrayed the megalomaniacal fantasies of Bryan's idol. So of course Bryan's on a bent to sabotage her. Again, no reason to see this as "sexist." Bryan, and Steve, too, were just as foul to Bob Anderson and Al Childress as they were to Roxy. Well, not "just" as foul. But A & C did not get in B & C's faces, by accepting the Mayoralty out from under B, so I still say there's no smoking "sexist" gun here.
The other example my reader offered was that of Jacobs. Definitely yes, he treats Roxy horribly. He is angry, challenging, suppressing, and grossly immature. I certainly acknowledge all of that. But the question is, is this about sexism? Jacobs' fixation on Roxy started last year, when he came to his first Commission meeting in about September. He came armed with a speech he did not prepare. He arrived at the meeting with the fixation already set, even though he knew nothing about Roxy, or the issues. And not only did he unleash an infantile temper tantrum on her, but he let it leak onto Ana Garcia as well. So in that sense, it could look like blind sexism. But since the material was Steve Bernard's, and had nothing to do with Jacobs, it's hard to assume the issue was sexism on Jacobs' part. He allows both Ana and Eve Boutsis to run meetings for him, so no evidence of sexism there. He seems proud of his wife, and his daughter. Though there is some subtle sense that he relishes his man-of-the-family role with them. Earlier this year, when he aired his pilot video blog, his wife was filmed scratching her butt, and uttering the word "fucking." But he didn't reprimand her, or react in any way, and he didn't even remove the clip until several people asked him to. If he were "sexist," wouldn't he have taken a firmer and more active stance?
It's also true that Jacobs' wife isn't even registered to vote in Dade County. So we would have to wonder what that's all about, and why she doesn't take a more legitimate role in her residence in BP. Is it "sexist" that Jacobs doesn't bother to insist his wife register to vote where she lives, instead of in Broward, or would it be "sexist" if he did?
And what about his persistent mistreatment of Roxy? "Sexist?" I think the dynamic is too murky, too confounded. The fact is, he doesn't treat me any better than he treats Roxy.
So I do recognize the primitive treatment rendered by some to others in BP, but I think sexism is too intellectualized an explanation. In psychoanalytic parlance, some issues are oedipal, and some are pre-oedipal. I really think what we're seeing here is pre-oedipal. I think it's more closely related to what we would call infantile narcissism than a dynamic as evolved as sexism. Just my opinion, because someone asked.
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