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“All pretty girls are right wingers” says Ann Coulter

13 comments

Sarah Cheverton,
WVoN co-editor

Firstly, I have to ‘fess up. Until today, I had never heard of Ann Coulter.

Apparently, she’s an American social and political commentator – although commentator here really just means, ‘someone who says things’.

Which Coulter definitely does.

According to Wikipedia, Coulter is “well-known for her conservative political opinions and the controversial ways in which she presents and defends them.”

I sensed that.

In her most recent rampage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Ann completely respun the old ‘feminists are ugly’ line in a way I could not have foretold.

“I think all real females are right-wingers,” she began.

I’m not even sure what that means, to be honest.

She continued, “I can tell you that based on experience – and my bodyguard will back me up on this – all pretty girls are right-wingers.”

Oh, no you didn’t.

With this one comment, Ann Coulter has started – at least in my warped mind – the weirdest game of trumps ever.

Not to mention the now-likely launch of the Miss (Political) Representation contest at the next Conservative Party Conference. Cue images of David Cameron murmuring to George Osborne across the judging panel, “Since we’ve got ’em, we might as well flaunt ’em!”, as Louise Mensch, Ann Widdecombe and Margaret Thatcher totter by.

But Coulter wasn’t done.

“I mean, the reason unattractive – I suppose – the reason liberal women are liberal is because they have to date liberal men and we’ve seen from Bill Clinton and Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anthony Weiner, we’ve seen how liberal men treat women, I’d be angry too.”

Yes, that’s right. I’m a feminist because Clinton couldn’t keep it in his pants.

I just pass time campaigning about things like the low rape conviction rate, unequal pay, and the gendered labour market to make myself look smarter, which is especially important given that I’ve lost out on those right wing good looks.

And while we’re on the subject of equal pay, Ann had some pearls of wisdom for us here too.

“I’ll take 69 cents on the dollar – or whatever current feminist myth is about how much we make – just to have to never have to pay for dinner. That seems like a fair deal to me.”

I have to warn you here, if you read that too many times, your brain may implode. It’s actually dangerous to take in that much implied crazy in one straight hit.

Because she did just call the pay gap a lie (someone call the UN – they are wasting a LOT of resources on this non-issue). And somehow, at the same time, she managed to say that even if it isn’t a lie, it’s more than made up for by the things men buy us. Like dinner.

Except if you’re a feminist. Because then you have a face like an arse so men probably aren’t buying anything for you. And that’s why you keep banging on about the imaginary pay gap.

Obviously.

Having discovered her so late, in many ways it seems like a terrible loss not to have found Ann sooner.

Particularly since these are only the latest in a long line of attempts to out-crazy herself.

Some of her other gems include:

“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.” (New York Observer, 2007)

Or my personal favourite, from Wikiquotes: “I am emboldened by my looks to say things Republican men wouldn’t.”

And while we’re still dwelling on looks, my final surprise came when I saw a picture of Ann Coulter. Because I have to admit to a bias of my own here.

Just judging her on what she said, I had assumed that Ann would be a cross between a caricature of Miss Havisham and either half of Hinge and Bracket (a note to our readers in other countries, or anyone born post-1975, I can’t even begin to describe these to you – check this out instead).

Which is to say, I thought the only way someone could get away with being paid to be this crazy would be if she was old and crazy.

You know, like how you forgive your nan for being a bit racist sometimes because it was a different world ‘in her day’.

How wrong I was.

Because Ann Coulter is not old. She’s barely past fifty and looking great.

But then,  I suppose that only proves her theory – all the pretty girls are right wingers.

And Ann Coulter certainly proves mine – that all Tories are insane.

  1. Jane Osmond says:

    Well, Sarah you have already given me a headache and it is barely 10am on a Monday morning. I really don’t know where to start. However, I will have a stab at this one: ‘all pretty girls are right-wingers.’ Now, quite apart from the fact that this statement is completely ridiculous in every way, I will hazard a guess that Coulter – without any irony (in fact my statement is that right-wingers have no sense of irony at all) has hit upon something here. If we accept the premise (hurts even to write this) then yes indeed a lot of pretty girls are going to be right-wingers, then it is because they – being pretty – conform to a male right-wing vision of what a woman should be. Therefore, Coulter and her ilk have probably received lots and lots of approbation from lots and lots of (older) right-wing men who appreciated being made to feel attractive by a ‘pretty young thing’. And – stay with me here – because they have become successful in whatever domain they operate within by dint of the prettiness, they – again without irony – put this down to the fact that left-wing women are moaning because they are not pretty and therefore don’t get appropriation from men. So in Coulter’s world there is no inequality – it is about being pretty and using it or not using it. It is quite amazing that she has got to 50 without realising that the point of feminism is that women should not have to operate as sexual objects to get anywhere. But there again, her comments kind of prove that she is not intellectually able to make these kind of distinctions because she really hasn’t had to develop any kind of critical thinking – being pretty in her world is enough. (See I told you made my brain hurt)

  2. MezzoPiana says:

    Good heavens above. I’d like to just post something inane like ‘teh stupid, it burns!’. But whilst I dislike Ann Coulter intensely and disagree with her on almost everything, I must say that until now I didn’t suspect her to be particularly lacking in intelligence. Unless she was joking (please?!), it is now apparent that she doesn’t have a shred of it. I’m stunned.

  3. I am stunned at the absolute stupidity of damning all right wing females as ‘insane’. It is as ridiculous as saying that all feminists have hairy armpits. When will this debate move out of the playground?

    This tribal nonsense is harmful to any debate and it is holding women back.

    • vicki wharton says:

      Maybe you should address your comments to La Coulter instead since she kicked this one off? And I would say Ms Coulter has had ‘work’ to look that pristine at aged 50 – or you could just say she is a piece of it instead …

      • Sorry? ‘kicked this off’? ‘look that pristine’? ‘piece of it’? Is anyone surprised that people don’t take the self-proclaimed ‘women’s movement’ seriously?

        • vicki wharton says:

          I’m sorry Charlotte, I was simply refering you to the fact that people on here are commenting on Ms Coulter’s opening remarks, not commenting on the comments. As for pristine, I think you would agree that Ms Coulter doesn’t look like your average 50 year old, even with a good make up artist and professional lighting, both of which I have extensive experience of having worked in fashion PR for some years. Piece of it meant piece of work … since her remarks seem to be deliberately inflammatory rather than showing a 360 degree understanding of many not so fortunate women’s situations.

  4. I am so offended by Ann Coulter’s comments I don’t know where to begin. But one thing that jumped out at me is the central condradiction between “all real females are right wingers” and “take away women’s right to vote and we would never have to worry about a Democrat President”. Surely if all real females are right wingers taking away their vote would be counterproductive for conservatives?

    But perhaps, in her warped world, “single women who vote so stupidly” are not real females. This is the same sort of vicious misogynist argument that was used against women gaining the vote 100 years ago. So therefore, in Ann Coulter’s world view, only women who have a male partner to tell them who to vote for should have the vote? Where are we headed here?

  5. vicki wharton says:

    Charlotte, I care because some women aged 50 can afford to look like that and then the media and political classes gives them space so as to look like we are making inroads into equality, but the women they promote are as deeply chauvinistic as the men, theyve just found a way of playing the system helped by expensive facelifts, botox, caribbean holidays to top up the tan and lashings of expensive clothes. They use that position to berate other women who don’t have either their money or their prohensity to whore themselves for a free meal.

    • What rubbish. She is given space because she is a polemicist. There are plenty of not-so-attractive female polemicists who are given space because they incite strong feelings and add to the debate. I would not be so rude as to name them but I am sure you can think of one or two.

      Your comments smack of jealousy. So what if she can afford to look that good at 50. We can all look good (for ourselves, and to men and women) if we want to, it is just whether we feel it is worth the effort/money/time to do so. Blaming it on the meedja is lazy.

      • vicki wharton says:

        No it isn’t lazy – both my parents were journalists and I worked in PR for 25 years and tracked how various campaigns we ran on anti smoking and drink driving changed public acceptance of these issues. There is a reason that the licence to run a media outlet specifically states that the person has to be a responsible citizen and that’s because the media is such a powerful changer of public attitudes. I am not jealous of Ann Coulter’s looks or power, just think that women like her are ultimately destructive towards other women for their own selfish ends. Inciting strong feelings when they are ones of hatred and contempt towards one particular group of people follows down the same route as the Nazis and South Africans took, and its not one I think we should be encouraging.

  6. Ann Coulter is gold! Pure gold. I can’t believe so many of you have missed out on her pearls of wisdom thus far. She makes me laaaaaugh…..until I cry.

  7. Jane Da Vall says:

    Please, let’s not give Ann Coulter the oxygen of publicity. That’s all she wants. No, not all right wing women are ‘insane’, but they do not appear to be very observant.

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