Readers, I have TMJ issues, but rarely has my jaw dropped so loosely and freely as it did this morning when I was greeted by the most flabbergasting thing ever recorded on the internet. This came in the form of an article on The Daily Beast entitled “Fat Judges Need Not Apply.” The punchline?
Within hours after the news broke that Souter was resigning, concerns arose that [former HLS Dean Elena] Kagan and [Second Circuit Judge Sonia] Sotomayor might be too fat to replace him.
Eh? What? Surely this is satire, I thought. I am hard on Dude Nation, but I assume that people are not, fundamentally, assholes, and would not be trying to import a wholly speculative discussion on the health of these individuals based on their not conforming to ridiculous standards of what “healthy women look like.”
I would be, however, wrong.
For those of you unfamiliar with this website and its aims (we seem to have been linked to by dude sites lately) who are thinking, “Well, this is discrimination on the basis of health, not size!”: fuck you. Have a look at this supermodel, currently sitting on the bench:
Which is not to say he shouldn’t be there either. (We’ll get into my views on Scalia some other time.) The point is that when fat men appear on the bench, nobody bats an eyelash. But when it’s a woman, well, hey, what are women’s bodies anyhoo if not up for public discussion?
And yes, that sound you heard was my screaming, all the way from Manhattan to you.
OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? Did Helen Gurley Brown suddenly become the headhunter for SCOTUS?
Does this mean that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s now a total hottie because her pancreatic cancer’s made her so fetchingly slim?
Personally, I’m all in favor of Nino Scalia and Clarence Thomas gaining weight until they have heart attacks and die, thus clearing the bench for more sane, vagina-possessing justicces.
/rant
(OMG, there’s pool of green venom collecting around my keyboard)
Best quote (from Paul Campos, who wrote the article and is just as disgusted by these sexist critiques):
“For some men, the only thing more intolerable than the sight of a powerful woman is the sight of a powerful woman they don’t want to sleep with.”
@Becky: You misandric man-hater. TAKE THAT BACK!!!!!
Rather than my jaw dropping, I clamped a hand over my mouth in an attampe to subdue the gaggin and retching.
This is beyond disgusting.
Ok, I read the article. Isn’t he basically just calling out random commenters on internet sites? It’s hardly an organized campaign for skinny female justices, just the same powerless rejects who always make stupid comments like that.
However I agree that the quote about powerful women you don’t want to sleep with is right on.
@JD: I remain astonished that such internet commenters exist, nonetheless, not least because in order for them to have some idea what Sotomayor even looks like they basically have to be lawyers.
JD, he also mentioned a Washington Monthly commentator.
Statistically, the possession of a penis results in reduced longevity. The SCOTUS should be completely comprised of women.
Shhh, SarahMC, no sensemaking!
I hear you guys, I just can’t get myself upset about some random anonymous evil lawyer internet commenters. However I am bracing for a truly ugly confirmation hearing. Because the Repubs have nothing at stake (they don’t have enough to filibuster, right, so Obama can basically get what he wants?) and we all know that when nothing is at stake, the drama and hysterics come out full force. Plus, SENATOR SESSIONS is taking over Specter’s seat on Judiciary. I’m sure any and all fat jokes will be appropriate at that time.
Putting aside all the obvious issues with “ew, women, fat, unhealthy, ewwwwww” sentiments for a moment (which I think the quote that SarahMC pulled from Campos points out brilliantly), I think this is interesting: This whole argument is supposedly predicated on the idea that having a Supreme Court justice sit on the bench for decades and decades is a good thing. Good lord, why? I’d much rather have quicker turnover on SCOTUS, it would keep the judges more current with the times. There’s got to be some balance between turnover fast enough that the court is extremely inconsistent and slow enough that the court is filled with people who are out of touch — maybe 15 years rather than 5 or 30.
OMG Pilgrim Soul, can we please not start with the bodysnarking on Scalia?
(Totally kidding.)
I am, sadly, unsurprised to hear about the fat comments re: Kagan and Sotomayer; however, I am genuinely shocked that Rehnquist was offended by a damn brown skirt suit. What the FUCK.
Now my brain hurts.
*Sotomayor, sorry
About the suit thing — not that it is surprising; talk to any female lawyer over the age of 40 and you get these horror stories, but do male lawyers really not wear brown suits? I had no idea.
Wanna rage some more? She’s *clearly* dumb:
http://wonkette.com/408318/is-frontrunner-mexican-lady-judge-a-dumb-anonymous-sources-think-so
That article is about this gem:
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=45d56e6f-f497-4b19-9c63-04e10199a085
I am also unwilling to let myself get worked up about comments on a law gossip blog. call me ridiculously judgmental but any attorney who reads blogs related to “legal gossip” is a fucking horses ass just on principal.
But I do see you’re overall outrage on this point PS.
BTW, Glenn Greenwald over at Salon wrote a great post about this today.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/05/tnr/
baraquiel, i’d like a shorter shelf life for the whole federal bench. i’m so sick of each and every one of them.
And Kivrin, I was far more offended by that hit job in the New Republic than by the fat shame comments here. I like Rebecca Traister’s take down. http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/05/04/rebecca_sonya/index.html
I’m excited by the Sotomayor “temperament” stories, which I interpret as people calling her a bitch (and all that means, I’m sure, is that she’s tougher than a doormat, sexism yada yada). I can’t help but think, Yes! A bitch! I love bitches. Give ‘em hell, Sonia!
When my now-retired M-I-L was on a state trial and then appellate bench from the 70′s to the ’90′s–she lost out on that federal seat when Carter lost in 1980 (and for other political reasons not relevant here)–her nickname among male practitioners was “Queen Ann.” I don’t think any of the men were called “King [anything.]” Thank god she wasn’t fat.
Okay, I have been resisting waving this around on the interwebs, because it’s vaguely braggy and obnoxious, but I know Sonia Sotomayor. She’s a pretty close family friend. She is in no way fat. Not that it should be newsworthy if she were. But she’s not. So, yeah, even more ridiculous.