Days of Womanface

I found Mulvaney’s girlhood cosplay grossly offensive from the beginning. I’m GenX. I grew up in the tailwinds of the Baby Boomer feminist movement. We were told repeatedly that stereotyping women as shopping obsessed, pink-loving, gossiping Barbie dolls was dangerous and offensive. Even Barbie herself got a makeover, expanding her fashion queen persona into the career realm. Mulvaney was wearing a costume that has been bathed in misogyny and he was being celebrated for it. I found it to be vile, at best.  

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The social media influencer’s first pop single doubles down on the womanface. Mulvaney can be seen flitting around in lingerie and pink frilly gowns, sipping champagne with “the gals” on a pink bed, trying on clothes and gyrating like Beyonce, except without the hips or shape that make such motions so sensual. ...

Mulvaney is clearly a rejected theater kid who just wants to be noticed. He’s tried on a number of personas over the years and this is the one that has finally worked. But I think - and this is my opinion; I don’t know him nor anyone who knows him personally - that Mulvaney’s motivation is much more sinister. I think he actually despises women, and his ongoing theater performance isn’t meant to court us but to ridicule us. To add insult to injury, some women applaud this insulting production. 

Ed Morrissey

Exactly. That was the point of blackface too -- to make fun of black men and women, not to honor them or aspire to be them. It condensed them down to a few ridiculously exaggerated mannerisms so that the audiences could share the experience of haughty ridicule. And that was very popular for far too long.

Let's put it this way. Even if you don't believe Mulvaney is doing this as ridicule, what would he do differently than his schtick now to ridicule women and 'girls'?

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