According to the Webb hair theory, would the woman in the picture above be a supporter of Obama or Clinton? First person to answer correctly gets a can of hairspray.
Just when you thought the BBC had been taken over by The Feminists™, along comes Justin Webb from From Our Own Correspondent and his ideas about the hairdos of women supporters of Hillary Clinton. Before he embarked on an interesting analysis of Ms Clinton’s courting of The White Racists™ (playing in a good ol’ bar near you soon), and other reasons why she lost, Webb indulged on 7 June 2008 in a bizarre rant about how Clinton’s female fans, with “faces gripped in steely determination”, don’t, to soften his words, have particularly natural hair. While Webb claimed the gals from Team Obama™ have “loose” locks that generally haven’t seen a dye bottle, the sisters of Hillary “dominate” their tresses (e.g. teasing and crimping). Although Webb might’ve been using his prerogative as a BBC journalist* to have a joke at the expense of The Hillarys™, it sounded an awful lot like a bloke with issues with assertive older women (“mummy, please don’t make me go to boarding school”). Anyway, you can listen to Webb’s views by going to this page and clicking on the relevant link.
*BBC journalists are known for their senses of humour.
I’ll vote for whoever this guy votes for.
“Who loves ya, baby?”
What does it say about Telly politically that he has got a bald nut?
Mr Webb wouldn’t be interested because Telly’s a bloke.
lol…Darlene, I haven’t listened to BBC radio for some time…I hope it’s an improvement on BBC World News (tho I don’t mind Hardtalk & the show w/ the computer tech stuff, tho it used to be less Corporate promoting…ah yes, Click-on-Line)…if this is the kind of trash some on BBC radio are peddling these days then I reckon Tony Blair & his intrusive mates & their love for Red Bees & grandiose ads have a great deal to answer for. You too Cap’n Britain.
Whatever happened to Simpson’s show? I found him an amiable chap w/ a interesting, personable & distinctive interview technique. Felt like i’d exercised after his show…took in the surrounds of somewhere i’d never been. Always needed a beer, like a Labatts Blue or Stella Artois after that exhausting walk…;)
P.S. Is it possible that Webb is an agent for Mr. Murdoch…:)…he gets around ya know. Like a flu.
The stylists at Harpo Productions will be spitting bobby pins.
Curling wands and crimping irons at 10 paces for a certain Mr Webb when he next sets foot in Chicago.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200711/20071129/slide_20071129_350_101.jhtml
And hey Darlene!
Great to see your creative posts again Darlene!
Sounds like Webb has iss-yoos.
Maybe he’s traumatised ‘cos the curtains don’t match the drapes.
And, yeah, boarding school.
Did he have any equally insightful remarks about the preponderance of comb-overs amongs McCain supporters?
Thanks, nasking. It’s interesting, when I go to download stuff onto my iPod, I check out the stuff from o/s, and the BBC stuff holds less and less interest. Indeed, the stuff from Radio National and American stuff like Fresh Air and Public Radio (or whatever it’s called is much more interesting these days). Is it Blair’s fault? Must be. Trying to make the Beeb more commercial.
Hey to you, Jo. Yes, I think Webb deserves a very special sitting at one of those salons where you can still have your hair set. And nobody crimps and preens more than Oprah….his theory falls down.
Ta Mercurius, no it was all about about the female supporters….biggest load of drivel. Not sure if he was deliberately trying to be controversial and un-PC or not. I think he was terrified by a Hillary supporter at one of the Hillaryfests and he hasn’t gotten over it (she accused him of asking a stupid question or something). What a silly boy journalist.
Darlene/nasking, the standard of BBC News is really dire, far worse than either ABC or SBS. On a recent visit to the UK I was quite amazed at the deterioration. After about 15 min of national ‘news’ there’s another 15 minutes of regional news, which is almost down to A Current Affair Standard.
Don’t think that you can solely blame Blair though - most newspapers have similarly headed down market, with a couple of notable exceptions.
That’s depressing, Adrian. It’s important to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen here.
An impossibly shallow observation from Webb. My daughter, for instance, is a stern hair-dominator, using a tongs-like instrument of torture to banish hated curls from her hair. Since her hair-dominating skills are uneven, though, after a day out and about she resembles one of the Bad Banksia men. So appearances can be deceptive.
Women of colour in the US, many (although not all) of whom would favour Obama, are under enormous pressure to spend large chunks of their income on hair taming, whether they’re high earners or low. This has been noted on some blogs as an equity issue since income in the US is not at present slanted towards WOC to say the least.
Darlene, I listen to Air America sometimes…particularly The Rachel Maddow Show:
http://airamerica.com/maddow
She has a segment on HABEUS CORPUS today.
Radio National is also a priority if i’m listening to the wadio.
“Curling wands and crimping irons at 10 paces for a certain Mr Webb when he next sets foot in Chicago.”
Everybody gets a stab…:) Does anyone hear Webb fall on Oprah’s Express?
“On a recent visit to the UK I was quite amazed at the deterioration.”
That is indeed depressing Adrian. Yes, the papers are crap too…the long, slow dive into “Jack the Ripper” world…& which celebrity has the biggest jugs & speed that some daft footballer can make the most of…after he searches for missing kids…& plugs his nose to avoid the stench of burning sheep carcasses, animals sacrificed on the alter of bio-chemical experimentation. Thank GAWD for Cap’n Britain!…come to save the day…dry the paint…carrier of the key to the detention cages. And who said God isn’t an Englishman? Poverty picnic anyone?
Ya know, Oliver Stone thought it was interesting that the Brit news had returned to those ugly circa Sherlock Holmes days…made a joke about it…;(…when he went there for a trip to a comedy standup thing.
I remember way back when heading into the London studios w/ a fella from Brighton who I rented a room from…he was a technician, the studio we went into was pretty basic & the old fella doing the news looked utterly bored…but the gravity in his voice & the amount of information he imparted was something to observe…or at least listen to. Tho the fear of Maggie was somethin’ to behold…she’d just got in & the staff were none too worried.
I think they were doing the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy readings in those days (the second series?…or somethin’ like that). Was 1980. I hope i’ve remembered it right…used to chug quite a few pints of lager & bitter…& Carlsberg Special Brew, Tennants Super Lager in the hours between working F/T at the Brighton Pancake House & P/T at the disco.
Quadrophenia by THE WHO motivated that trip which lasted 8 mths. Plenty of cold air, ragin’ seas, stoney beaches, fresh air…& lots of language classes w/ wonderful Swiss & German girls visiting. I fell deeply for two…one as a dear friend…the other I lost my heart too, near the clocktower…(it got crushed big time at a later date…c’est la vite!…:) Long distance love affairs are very difficult to manage…& bloody expensive…even if you eventually became a glorified waiter on a plane w/ good income. Long distance phonecalls were killers back then. A week’s pay gone w/ romantic words & desperate moments of imagined togetherness down the telephone line.
Back to Brighton…we used to sit on the tatty common room carpet w/ a beer or twelve from the off-license, chomp on a fresh mushy & listen to Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, Ultravox (I think Vienna was the big song then), Joy Division, The Clash & The Pretenders. And yes, Adam & the Ants & Phil Collins & The Alan Parsons Project.
I hope the British press get their sh*t together…I still read The Guardian and The Independent now & then…on-line of course. Wrote a comment to Cap’n Brit yesterday. Dump the TIGHTS & give to the poor….& pensioners.
Note: Drinking more than 2 standard drinks a day might cause you to spontaneously combust. Ask a few NSW Laborites.
Helen, good point about African-American women being encouraged to tame their hair (look less African American perhaps?). And just think about how Hillary’s female supporters would be judged if they had loose locks. The words “slovenly feminists” comes to mind.
Incidentally, just read a story about how Fox is being forced to apologise for using the term “baby mama” about Obama’s wife.
Never listened to Air America, might be worth trading in the BBC World Service for that.
Haven’t heard the piece, and can’t get audio at work.
However, at first glance, I suspect that the hairstyle comments would have been made tongue in cheek. And yes, the Brits frequently mercilessly take the piss out of comb-overs too (in general anyway, I have no idea about McCain specific material) so I doubt any sexist motive.
Indeed, most of the political hairdo gags I remember from the UK involved male pollies, Neil Kinnock and Michael Hesseltine being prime targets during the ’80s.
I think, maybe, Webb’s detractors may need to lighten up a bit.
Of course, if the piece was intended as serious analysis, then it deserves all the opprobium that can be heaped upon it.
I had hoped Webb was taking the piss, IB, but it didn’t come across that way.
Here’s a link to Webbo’s blog:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/
Kinnock was a ranga when he had hair, wasn’t he? Or was he a ranga with a comb-over. He was a pretty good chap, I reckon.
Fox has apologised twice - one for the Baby Mama crack, and one for calling the Michelle-Barack dap a Hezbollah-style terrorist fist jab. Something about the Obama candidacy is really making the network crazy.
Wonder when the’ll drop the “N-bomb”. A lot of people reckon August; I think it will be July.
Thanks for the link. Haven’t time to trundle through every post. The general tone seems to be, at least, somewhat lighthearted though, so I’m still inclined to award the benefit of the doubt.
I’d agree that Kinnock was OK (although he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in his later roles with the EU, being, allegedly, excessively secretive, among other things) and would have made an acceptable, if not great, PM. Unfortunately, not enough of the British electorate thought the same. Or maybe they just didn’t want a ‘ranga Welshman with bad hair and a foreskin on his nose as a leader. We may never know.
I still recall my horror and disgust at my fellow countrymen when I woke up that morning in May 1992 to the news that the Tories were still in charge. So I came to Australia six months after the election of JWH’s government, thus condemning myself to eleven years of the same ;-).
Sooner rather than later, Down and Out (perhaps late June). Not sure it takes much to make Fox crazy, but people often resort to extreme and unpleasant behaviour and language when they’re feeling insecure or know they’re on the losing side. I’m shocked they’ve apologised. Of course, they wouldn’t have had to if they hadn’t said those things in the first place.
Tee hee, all that way for more of the same. Hope you’re liking our little patch of earth. It ain’t much, but we’re proud of it
What do you make of G Brown?
Good Chancellor (Treasurer in local speak), lousy PM, if only becuase of an utter lack of discernible charisma. I’d have been much more interested to see John Prescott in the position, if only for the entertainment value.
Mind you, I haven’t followed UK politics as closely as I used to since my last subscription to Private Eye ran out a couple of years ago.