Eve And Eve

I've been missing Fresh Air on NPR quite a bit lately but I wish I hadn't missed this interview outlined by the blogger at preemptivekarma.com. I interlaced my comments in bold.

In an interview with NPR Fresh air host Terry Gross on February 9, author/VP spouse Lynne Cheney gave an unchallenged "both ends against the middle" analysis of lesbianism/female intimacy.

During the interview, Cheney is asked by Gross about the new Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Specifically, Gross queried Cheney about Spellings' quest to remove the Department of Education seal and all references of DOE funding from the animated children's show, "Postcards from Buster". Spellings' objection to Buster stems from an episode where on a trip to Vermont, Buster meets some children with lesbian parents.

Cheney responds that she believes parents want control over what their children see and hear, especially in terms of things having to do with sexuality. (The Buster episode in question contains no references to sex or sexuality in any way. The children have two women as parents. There is no reference to their sexuality).

Uh, HELLO! Does this mean you didn't "control" what little Miss Mary watched? After the Sponge Bob Square Pants fervor, I just couldn't bring myself to address the absurdity of the new Secretary of Education jumping on a bunny cartoon as her first order of business. When do cartoon bunnies talk about sexuality? I ended up seeing a brief clip of the "controversial" PBS program and all Buster the Bunny did was go visit two ladies who make frickin' syrup. Without the heads up from the homo police, I probably wouldn't have picked up that the women were "partners." I know for a fact, that if I'd seen it as a kid, I'd just now be figuring it out!

Later in the interview, Gross asks Cheney about her book Sisters,which contains the following passages:

"'To my Helena, my dearest lover...Thine always, A.T.' Helen and Amy Travers? No, it couldn't be, simply couldn't."

"Helen, my joy and my beloved...Let us go away together, away from the anger and the imperatives of men...There will be only the two of us...In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl..."

"Society as a whole might conclude that women were sexless creatures, but she knew otherwise. She also knew that claiming a relationship was not erotic, thinking it could not be would not keep it from being so. There could be no tearing off of one's clothes and lustily hopping into bed, not if one would preserve the love-religion. But the loving words and the warm embrace were permitted, and the kiss before sleep, the arousal gentle enough so that its nature would not have to be acknowledged."

"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve...-- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved...she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her."

Whaa? So, according to evangelicals, God didn't make Adam and Steve but in Lynne Cheney's book he made Eve and Eve?

Cheney tells Gross that these passages aren't about lesbianism and that those who believe so are guilty of "presentism": assigning the notions of today to pioneer women as some, Cheney says, are trying to now do with Lincoln.

Cheney further goes on to claim that a loving relationship between two women isn't necessarily sexual. Indeed. But here's the problem: she just told Gross a few minutes earlier that two women in the Buster episode are sexual, even though there are absolutely no sexual references.

Uh, right! Sorry, but I am in a sorority and ... we no say tings like that to each other ... Blood sisters don't either

Oddly, today I made the stupid mistake of posting comments (as Qusan) on a conservative sistah's blog (no not LaShawne Barber ... that chick is scary ... I avoid her blog the way I avoid FoxNews) who posted about Maya Keyes' coming out earlier this week. The stupidity was in knowing that a good number of her readers are bible thumping zealots who only know the language of fear and sin and that any chance for intelligent discussion is lost because the debate is based on two different premises: sinful choice vs. genetics.

I said during the election season that I thought Lynne Cheney was in denial about Mary (even though she was at the ignauguration with the entire family along with her partner) and even feels twinges of guilt that she, somehow, made Mary that way. It's sad.