[microsound] noise in American politics

[vze26m98 <vze26m98@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From the recent issue of Left Business Observer:

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com

"This is an edited version of an interview with Cynthia Enloe that ran
on Doug Henwood¹s radio show on May 20, 2004. Enloe teaches political
science at Clark University, and has written widely on militarism,
power, and the lives of women. Among her books are Maneuvers and
Bananas, Beaches, and Bases. For the original audio, see the radio page
on the LBO website:


Enloe:
"Both Bush and Cheney-Rumsfeld find it useful to try and feminize Colin
Powell, which is pretty hard to do with somebody who has been a general.
But they can do it because of the long history of trying to feminize the
State Department in American inner circles."

Henwood:
"You mean that State is more analytical and reflective, and not driven
by determination and action?"

Enloe:
"Yes. Bob Woodward¹s book is very helpful here. Listening to how Bush
talks, to how Rumsfeld and Cheney talk, it seems to me that their notion
of unmanliness is anything that is tolerant of messiness, anything that
engages with what they refer to as "noise". "Noise" seems to be what we
would think of as democracy. But their masculinized notions of
resoluteness, of tough-mindedness, have to do with the opposite of what
the State Department, in its own bureaucratic mission, must be engaged
in?complex negotiation, long, ongoing debate, and acceptance of
varieties of points of view. That¹s what Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney,
those in particular, are very uncomfortable with, and therefore
feminize."


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