Women in the news

After reading my first article today on First Lady Laura Bush, I set out to find other depictions of women in today's news stories--were they strong or yielding? Did they do justice to the their subjects? I was surprised at how few stories I found to choose from, but here are few that take femininity into consideration in the midst of their reporting.

The New York Times today discusses First Lady Laura Bush’s increasingly active role in domestic and foreign affairs—does this come as a surprise? The author of the piece seems to think so. The article calls Laura Bush’s recent activism “unusually substantive,” setting the tone for the piece early on as one that seeks to overcome stereotypes. It is an appropriate tone for this story, since, as the article points out, Laura Bush never sought to become a public figure. The article includes many examples of the First Lady’s recent efforts, including personal meetings with the White House press corps and her much-publicized phone call on behalf of the Burmese monks to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as well as her upcoming trip to the Middle East to promote breast cancer awareness. Regarding this trip, the article is quick to point out the women’s health issues are well-traversed territory for First Ladies, but Laura Bush’s efforts still show an increased activity given her own personal history in this role. Still, for every preconception the article tries to break down, it weakens that argument with the final quote, which considers the First Lady’s change in contrast to her “Christmas cookie” image. Evoking that domestic trope—home-made cookies—once in an article is already once too much. Couldn’t the story have ended on a stronger, less compromising note?

In The Patriot Ledger today, little girls are learning not to buy into the belief that their only role is in the kitchen—well, sort of. An article on a Hingham Brownie troop discusses the girls’ efforts to send care packages to South Shore nurses serving in Iraq. The article touches on the educational value of the activity for the girls by explaining how the wife of a soldier told them what it’s like to live in Iraq’s brutal climate and by mentioning their letters with messages to Iraqi children. There is a brief quote testifying that women play an important role in the war, but this message ought to have been further elaborated, since this is where the educational value seems to lie. Still, the girl scouts’ descriptions of their cards and projects show that they have learned something about supporting both their countrywomen and the Iraqi families affected by war.

The Washington Post’s review of Annie Leibovitz’s retrospective at the Corcoran Art Gallery looks at the photographer’s work a consideration of the substance of its technique rather than the superficiality of its some of the celebrity subjects. The reviewer draws a clear line between Leibovitz’s beautifully executed magazine cover photography and the deeply personal photographs of her family that chronicle her own struggles with grief and loss. The effect is to show the multidimensionality of the artist and acknowledge the skill of her work.