Focus on Dr. Steinberg
I am frankly uncomfortable with the increased media hunger for details about Dr. Judy Steinberg. This NYT article does a good job of explaining how Dean does not intend to use his wife as a prop on the campaign trail, but it also takes absurd detours into discussing the state of their marriage and invokes a ludcrous system of categorization for First Ladies by one Myra Gutin:
Note the desperate attempt to fit square pegs into round holes - and the dark speculation of What it All Means that Dr. Steinberg actually has a life beyond Her Husband's Wife. Coupled with the religious conservative obsession about why a "supposedly devout" Dean would marry a (gasp!) Jewish wife - and (gasp!) raise his kids to be Jewish, there's a pattern emerging here that suggests that maybe the media isn't quite ready to abandon its precious sterotypes.
Political experts say spouses often help humanize the candidates they are married to. A spouse, the person presumably closest to the candidate, also provides a window into a politician's character, they said, and acts as a kind of validator.
"The whole thing has just struck me as a little odd," said Myra Gutin, who has taught a course on first ladies at Rider University in New Jersey for 20 years. "There may be some voters out there who say, `well, why isn't she here? Why isn't she supporting him?' It's the most outward manifestation of support."
In her book, "The President's Partner: The First Lady in the 20th Century," Ms. Gutin outlined three broad categories: "ceremonial" (Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower), whose White House role was mainly entertaining; "emerging spokeswoman" (Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon), who seized the podium to promote issues important to them; and "activist" (Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford). Dr. Steinberg, she said, fits nowhere.
Note the desperate attempt to fit square pegs into round holes - and the dark speculation of What it All Means that Dr. Steinberg actually has a life beyond Her Husband's Wife. Coupled with the religious conservative obsession about why a "supposedly devout" Dean would marry a (gasp!) Jewish wife - and (gasp!) raise his kids to be Jewish, there's a pattern emerging here that suggests that maybe the media isn't quite ready to abandon its precious sterotypes.
Comments