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Another animal metaphor

Friday, 12th September 2008

All the talk about her mumsiness grates on me as well. Irritated elitist John McWhorter goes canine at the end of his column:

My mother was the kind of person who could plausibly have been swept up to become a town mayor. I cringe at the notion of her, with her two jobs and doctorate, making speeches reminding voters that she was, at heart, a Mom...

Aristotle, across more than two millennia, urges us to realize ourselves to our ultimate capability, conceiving of virtue and happiness as lifelong efforts rather than as idle sensations. Lovely — except that to him, a woman's ultimate capability was as household chattel. Aristotle would have nodded with ominous vigour at this "I'm just a hockey Mom" business. And I'm not sure how much solace I take in the notion that without lipstick, the chattel in question would be an angry little dog.

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