WH Correspondents Association Dinner

[Crackpot]

In all the kerfuffel, I see everyone carefully ignoring her final target--CNN. Four talking heads endlessly discussing the same distracting topics.
The News? CNN you broke it, meanwhile Flint still does not have clean water.

snailgate

I think that s why there is a kerfuffle over the non insulting appearance insult. She jabbed at the media not the politicians and they didn’t like it. What better way to get payback and further distract from the fact that the media hasn’t and still isn’t doing its job.

Edited to fix a run on sentence and an autocorrect error

[BoSoxGal]

I think maybe Meade just isn’t familiar with the once very famous major brand advertising campaign:




I’m pretty sure this is why so many women are puzzled by the ones decrying Wolf’s alleged attacks on SHS’s appearance; the references are a clear nod to her perfectly composed eye makeup (‘smoky’ eye is a style of eye makeup application) and generally perfectly put together appearance - as a foil to her absolute lack of candor and truthfulness.

[RayThom]

Donald Trump has so poisoned the atmosphere by attacking the disabled, gold star parents, Muslims, Mexicans, Blacks, women, the press, the rule of law that a comedian who simply tells the truth is offensive?

Wolf was joking. Drumpf and his minions are not.

[Sue U]

Donald Trump has so poisoned the atmosphere by attacking the disabled, gold star parents, Muslims, Mexicans, Blacks, women, the press, the rule of law that a comedian who simply tells the truth is offensive?

Wolf was joking. Drumpf and his minions are not.

What he said.

[Econoline]

Since when did 'perfect smokey eye' become an insult, America?

---

Also too: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-pol ... ally-fair/

• At the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, host Hasan Minhaj skewered Donald Trump’s appearance not once, but twice. First, he literally called the president an elephant. Then, he compared him to a spit-roasted pig, mocking not only his rotisseried pallor, but also his weight.
  
  Backlash against Minhaj started immediately. A man should never dare to criticize another man’s appearance, commentators insisted. Men must unite against attacks like these, critics said. What ever happened to men supporting men? It all culminated in the White House Correspondents’ Association issuing an apology, saying they were sorry Minhaj’s remarks did not “offer a unifying message.”
  
  Just kidding, none of that happened. Well, the two fat jokes happened—but nobody cared. There was no backlash, and Minhaj enjoyed praise for his performance.
  
  When Michelle Wolf hosted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this past weekend, though, she didn’t get off so easy. Wolf dared to reference White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ eye makeup and point out her resemblance (in demeanor, not appearance) to a softball coach and a villain from The Handmaid’s Tale. It was far from her edgiest material of the night. But because she was a woman taking aim at another woman, people were appalled: can a woman really insult one of their own like that?

  • Maggie Haberman
    ✔
    @maggieNYT
    That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.
    
    10:14 PM - Apr 28, 2018
    33K

  The whole debate infantilizes two adults who are functioning at the top level of their chosen careers: Michelle Wolf and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. If Donald Trump and his male critics are allowed to engage in criticism and debate like equal adults, why can’t Wolf and Sanders do the same?
  
  As a comedian, a writer, and a person who often expresses opinions in public, I can’t say I’m surprised. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and beyond, men are allowed to mock men in power for anything they want. Women, though, are often accused of being traitors to our gender if we criticize other women — even when the women we criticize are powerful, mature adults entirely capable of weathering light ribbing.
  
  Strangely enough, as comic Brooke Arnold points out, Wolf’s remarks really weren’t as below-the-belt as the Washington establishment is making them out to be. Wolf called Sanders’ integrity into question, not her looks.
  
  “That was the most polite roast that I’ve ever watched,” Arnold deadpans.
  
  In addition to comparisons to a gruff coach and a dystopian sociopath, Wolf slyly complimented Sanders’ resourcefulness: “She burns facts and she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye.”
  
  This punchline elicited an audible “ohhhhh” from the audience, as if “smokey eye” was a stand-up trigger word on the level of “rape” or “incest.”
  
  The knee-jerk reaction that followed missed the point. These “weren’t jokes about looks at all, they were about Sanders being a liar,” says Corinne Fisher, a New York-based comic and host of the popular podcast “Guys We Fucked.” “People at the WHCD reacted just like traditional comedy audiences do so often these days: allow themselves to be triggered by a word and hear what they want to hear. If you cannot digest full jokes, you shouldn’t invite a professional comedian to roast you.”
  
  The shocked tweets and complaints began almost immediately, ultimately culminating in an apology from the WHCA:

  View image on Twitter
  View image on Twitter

  Of course, men aren’t expected to do their jobs and unify the masses. Just look at Donald Trump: male leaders are more than allowed to be divisive and criticize each other in a public forum, because when they do it, it’s all in good fun.
  
  And sometimes, it’s even considered good for democracy. “Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers have been constantly lauded for the anti-Trump segments on their late-night shows,” Arnold laments. “The media throws Colbert a PR parade every time that he even slightly jokes about the Trump Administration. Now when a woman gets the spotlight doing it at an event specifically designed for that purpose, it’s too much.”
  
  Women are often expected to not only do our jobs, but also to induce warm and fuzzy feelings in those around us while we do them. If we fail at this, or if we go so far as to make people feel uncomfortable for a minute, we’re traitors to our gender. Or, as Fox News condescendingly called Wolf in a headline, “mean girls.” Wolf, of course, is not a mean girl; she’s a 32-year-old comedian using her platform to take aim at a poisonous presidential administration.
  
  And as Fisher points out, she did her job and then some. “She came in and tore them new assholes,” she says, “because she has comedic integrity and obviously cares about the country.”
  
  Bryan Yang, a comic who’s opened for Wolf and loved the set on Saturday night, also emphasizes that Wolf wasn’t mocking Sanders’ appearance. And even if she had, he says, that wouldn’t have been off-limits.
  
  “I truly think you’re allowed to joke about anything, especially when you’re punching up at this terrible administration,” Yang said. He called the backlash a “really dumb reaction” to the “backwards societal norms [stating that] women aren’t supposed to be rude or crass.”
  
  The backlash against Wolf is happening “because the critiques came from a woman and instantly violated gender codes about politeness,” Arnold adds. “It’s totally ridiculous.”
  
  Weirdly enough, women’s perceived sensitivity is frequently weaponized and used against us by those crusading against “PC culture;” conservatives often argue that women’s quickness to get offended, for example, infringes on men’s ability to speak freely in the workplace.
  
  “These Trump supporters love to complain that women are too easily offended when we speak out about misogyny,” Arnold says, “but they get their feelings hurt at an actual comedy show. The hypocrisy is aimed at silencing Michelle Wolf.”
  
  There’s also a longstanding notion that women can easily unite for a cause simply due to our gender. Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski best summed up this argument with her tweet:

  • Mika Brzezinski
    ✔
    @morningmika
    Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable. I have experienced insults about my appearance from the president. All women have a duty to unite when these attacks happen and the WHCA owes Sarah an apology.
    
    8:37 AM - Apr 29, 2018
    15.5K

  
  The idea that an allegiance to gender is more important than an allegiance to your own morals is one that is foisted solely upon women. In reality, women are not going to suddenly support the professional ombudsman of the most blatantly misogynistic president in modern history just because she, too, lacks a Y chromosome.
  
  “If we as women have an obligation to each other,” Arnold asks, “then where is Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ obligation to us? Where is her loyalty? Where is her commitment to other women?”
  
  “We’re just in a time when people are against body- and looks-shaming,” Fisher adds, “but seemingly still fine with everything else this administration is doing.”

[RayThom]

I don't think it's "smokey eye" that Sarah Huckleberry Sandbagger displays, it's a medical condition known as "tear trough hollows" which apparently is genetic. So maybe she should get a pass on this dysmorphic facial feature because it's not a look she's purposely trying to achieve by the use of makeup.

Now, for anything else, it's open season on the miserable bitch.

[BoSoxGal]

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Damn!

[BoSoxGal]

I don't think it's "smokey eye" that Sarah Huckleberry Sandbagger displays, it's a medical condition known as "tear trough hollows" which apparently is genetic. So maybe she should get a pass on this dysmorphic facial feature because it's not a look she's purposely trying to achieve by the use of makeup.

Now, for anything else, it's open season on the miserable bitch.

That condition refers to the area in the inner corner and under the eye; smokey eye is the way makeup is applied above, on the outer corner, and a little bit under the eye:



Sarah without smokey eye:



Sarah with smokey eye:



Seems to me her only physical issue with regard to her eyes is that the flesh above her upper lid is droopy - there’s a procedure for that, but nobody was criticizing that aspect of her appearance. Nobody criticized ANY aspect of her appearance, in fact - her perfect smokey eye makeup was noted, in the context of her being a lying liar who lies. Every joke made about her was about her LYING to the American people on a daily basis.

I’m disturbed by all those defending her, especially people like Mika B who really was savaged for her physical appearance by Trump.

I’ve shut off the news; it’s all a big psychodrama feeding egos and wallets - I’m pretty sure most of these folks are glad Trump is President, as they’d have far less to dramatize if Hillary was. After all, none of these so-called journalists has to worry that Trump’s policies will hurt them - they’re all rich compared to you and me.

Turns out Joy Reid was a homophobe not all that long ago, and Tom Brokaw sexually harassed women back in the day. There are no more positive role models. There’s a documentary coming out this summer about Fred Rogers; I’m gonna lose it if any skeletons fall out of his closet in conjunction with that.

[Scooter]

I’m disturbed by all those defending her, especially people like Mika B who really was savaged for her physical appearance by Trump.

I have to wonder if Mika B's pearl clutching wasn't more about being pissed about the crack that Wolf made about her and Joe Scarborough.

As was probably a lot of the media blowback - Wolf hit them as hard as she hit the politicos, and I don't imagine they liked it one bit.

[Sue U]

I think the blowback on Wolf has been so fierce -- and so misdirected -- because she dispensed with all the coy niceties of Washington society and straight-up called Sarah Huckabee Sanders a lying liar who lies, right to her lying face, and that is just Not Done in the kabuki dance between the WH Press Corps and the Press Secretary. But as anyone who has seen her knows, Wolf does not pull any punches, and it was that unvarnished assessment that truly offended the delicate sensibilities of the Beltway crowd, sending them to their fainting couches.

[Big RR]

While I agree with your assessment Sue, and also agree with her characterization of Huckabee as a liar, I also think that the Dinner was not the most appropriate place to make the statement. This was more of a social occasion with good natured ribbing from all sides, not the best time to lob such a serious charge.

That being said, it's a free country (at least for the time being) and I see no reason to condemn what she said. And I don't see that the minor breach of etiquette deserves all the media hand wringing and fake shock.

[RayThom]

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Damn!

BSG, are there any buttons or boxes you can click on after these messages appear? Maybe your giving up to quickly.

If you see an article that you want to read but you're prohibited from doing so, try to copy some connected buzzwords from the byline and google it. You may find a link very similar to what you want.