Now, we have some NAGS news, the National Association of Gals are very upset out there. One of my all-time favorite congresswomen — who actually prefers to be called a congressman — is Marsha Blackburn. She’s a Republican from Tennessee. She’s been in the Tennessee delegation in Congress since 2003, and she prefers to be called a congressman. You call her office and you get hold of the secretary, she’ll say, ‘Hang on, let me grab the congressman for you, hang on just a second.’ Euphemistically here, not literally, grab the congressman, and then she gets on the phone. Marsha Blackburn says, ‘It’s not something I see as a big deal.’ She’s the only female member of the Tennessee delegation, by the way. She she’s not trying to make a statement, feminist or otherwise. ‘Her communications director, Claude Chafin, ‘I have never known her to correct anyone who calls her ‘congresswoman.’ I have also never heard her introduce herself as anything other than ‘Marsha.’
‘Still, ‘congressman’ is her first choice, Chafin continued. Blackburn signs her official correspondence with that title, and it appears on her website. In several news articles, she’s referred to as ‘Congressman Blackburn,’ with the added disclaimer ‘her preferred term.” The NAGS are bent out of shape about this. The National Association of Gals is upset. ‘There’s a reason for that, say leading female academics, women’s policy analysts and other members: Names do matter. ‘When they refer to themselves as congresswoman, this sounds different because it is different,’ said Latifa Lyles,’ of the NAGS. You know, this is fascinating. This is in The Politico. Now, would you listen to how The Politico writes up and describes and gives their modifier here: ‘said Latifa Lyles, of the National Organization for Women, a feminist advocacy group,’ as though people don’t know who they are anymore, which is music, sweet, because we have swept the NAGS away to irrelevance. By the way, who wrote this? Helena Andrews.
Helena, The National Organization for Women is a liberal advocacy group, it’s not a feminist advocacy group. Anyway, Latifa Lyles of the NAGS says that’s significant. We want her to use the word congresswoman. ”We don’t have to pretend we’re not women in order to be leaders in this country,’ she said. Barbara Kellerman, a professor of women’s and government studies at Harvard University, said women — like many minority groups — are repeatedly at odds with issues of nomenclature. ‘Whenever we blend with the male appellation, we are diminishing the significance of the accomplishment,’ said Kellerman.’ No, the accomplishment stands on its own. So here are the NAGS, and here are a bunch of enlightened feminists — what was that about, by the way? Empowering women to do what they want to do.
So here’s Marsha Blackburn, ‘I want to be called congressman.’
‘You can’t!’
More Stalinist-like intolerance from another liberal advocacy group!