“We, as a nation, want so badly for this Binders Full of Women joke to work,” Mercury contributor Suzette Smith tweeted this morning. Correct! People are really trying to make it work. HOWEVER. Before you dress as a binder for Halloween (I think I got that joke from NPR this morning!) you should familiarize yourself with the details of why, exactly, Romney’s statement was so dumb. He’s what he said:
We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women’s groups and said, “Can you help us find folks?” And they brought us whole binders full of women.
And here’s what the Boston Phoenix‘s David S. Bernstein says:
What actually happened was that in 2002—prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration—a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.
They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.
Bernstein goes on to note that while “Romney did appoint 14 women out of his first 33 senior-level appointments, which is a reasonably impressive 42 percent… None of the senior positions Romney cared about—budget, business development, etc. —went to women.” After pointing out that the number of “senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration,” he adds maybe the best part:
In Romney’s story as he tells it, this man who had led and consulted for businesses for 25 years didn’t know any qualified women, or know where to find any qualified women.
I was trying to wrap my head around the logic of it and came to the conclusion that Romney is in favor of affirmative action.
Last evening while drunk and yelling at the television, my joke wasn’t about binders, but about the vagueness of “women’s groups.”
‘So we asked the Lesbian Cat Fanciers, we asked ’em where we could get some gals to fill positions!’
I didn’t watch the debate, and there’s a definite whiff of desperation to the attempts to make the binder thing happen. It’s not really that big of a misstep, especially compared to the real story (that the binder was handed to him, not commissioned by him). Even then, his administration hired a bunch of women.
Fine. Great.
SO WHAT IS HE FOR AND AGAINST NOW?
I drink your binders! I drink them up!
I think it’s wonderful that Romney worked with his female staff so they could go home and cook dinner. what woman in her right mind would NOT vote for this man?
right after they make me a sandwich, of course.
Sounds like you make the sandwiches in your house, eric.
Seriously, let me give you some advice. Most women are really cool and they are able to put up with some shit. Most of them I know like hanging out with their man and even taking care of him. Make me a sandwich? Sure, babe. Blowjob? Ohhhhhh k. Then you do something cool for her like take her to Olive Garden.
What most women don’t like is this notion that some hero has to come to their defense on a blog. This will not get you laid and you come off as a weenie.
Hope that helps.
Romney’s lucky we collectively decided to latch on to “binders” instead of his assertion that what women in the workforce REALLY care about is getting home to make dinner for their families. I was dumbfounded that he chose that tact for a question about equal pay for women.
I have a sneaking suspicion you have no real understanding of what “most women” like or dislike.
but please, continue to flap your arms and fart out more nonsense…
“Then you do something cool for her like take her to Olive Garden.”
I’ll write an I,A about this which now won’t exactly be anonymous but what the hell. I’m breakin’ the rules today. See you in a few.
(Chicks love Olive Garden for some reason. This isn’t my opinion, it’s reality.)
Finally we can undo Title 9.