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October 13, 2005
Supreme Desires
Just a quick note on Ruth Marcus's Washington Post column, "A Supreme Moment of Ambiguity," which reads reaction to Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court through the new TV series, Commander in Chief, which features Geena Davis as the first female President of the United States. Marcus argues that, "the two events capture the uncertain position of women in public life today," and I think she's generally right about this uncertainty, but I'm not quite willing to share her argument that Miers was nominated primarily because of her gender, although her gender obviously played some role in that decision.
Like Marcus, I'd found the commercials for the show somewhat "off-putting," especially given that the show seems to rely on the improbabilty of a female president. In fact, Davis's character is thrust into office only when the President dies (Air Force One and The Contender, with their female VPs, mine similar territory). As Marcus observes, the series sometimes trades in the gender role reversals (the "First Man," etc), but she quickly adds that because of Davis's "matter-of-fact" performance as the POTUS, the series "is growing on her."
While I haven't seen the series (just the commercials) and can't comment on its treatment of the idea of a female President, I can't help but think of a third image that Marcus fails to mention: the political-pundit fantasy of a presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice that many pundits have been imagining (or fearing). I've found it difficult not to think about these rumors every time I see an advertisement for Commander in Chief, and CiC seems to be tapping into those fears as well. Can a female President lead the military in a time of war? Here, it's notable that both candidates are relatively hawkish. How will other nations react to a female leader? Of course the answer to the latter question will probably be yet another question: What took you so long?
technorati tag:television
Posted by chuck at October 13, 2005 3:37 PM
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Your entry made me reflect on the Philippine goevernment lead by a female president. You see, back home in the Philippines a woman was put into power several times "by the people" because two of our presidents were impeached by "People Power" (you've heard about these two male presidents who were overthrown: Marcos and Erap Estrada?).
Mow what's happening? The government is being ovwrthrown again and destabilized; by whom? I don't want to point fingers but they said the military has something to do about it. Ever heard last week of a scandal in the White House by an FBI Filipino agent Aragoncillo (accused of espionage)? I'm not sure if what they say in the news is true but they said he was helping the opposition in destabilizing the government lead by President Loria macapagal-Arroyo, the lady president of the Philippines. Oh well! I guess the entry is still in my blog's home page...
Ok with me to exchange links with you. Let's learn from each other. I hope that won't be the last time for you to visit my blog. Please feel free to exchange thoughts with us regarding the ideas I present in my entries. I hope you won't get intimidated by the commenters speaking in my native language (I am a Filipino by the way). You're always welcome to visit my blog.
Posted by: Teacher Sol at October 13, 2005 7:14 PM
I'm more familiar with Marcos than Estrada, but I know a little about this history, and the Aragoncillo story was a strange one. I'll be curious to see what you have to say about it.
Posted by: Chuck ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://chutry.wordherders.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 13, 2005 7:23 PM