|
{1} The following is from the infamous Playboy Interview with Anita Bryant, from June 1978:
"For such a sexual naif, Anita can with startling incongruity become quite the barroom flirt: ‘Just wait till you see my show, Ken,’ she bubbled as she made up her face before her Mississippi State Fair show …. She stood up and looked away from her mirror. ‘I have to dress now, so y’all shoo.’ I headed for the exit. ‘Oh, Kennnn ….’ Anita lifted her skirt to mid-thigh and winked. ‘You can stay if you want to. Hah ha,’
"Several months later, in her last phone call to me, Anita said, ‘Hiya, boyfriend,’ in her fetchingest corn pone. She was calling, she said, to wish me good luck for the new year and to tell me that her whole family was praying for me every night. And, oh, yes …..by the way – ‘Ken, I hope that you realize that I have made myself tremendously vulnerable to you. I opened myself up to you in ways that I’ve never done before. I’ve shared some things with you I’d never even shared with my husband.’ A beat. ‘Now that’s a sacred obligation on your part.’ I mumbled something about doing my best. ‘Well, do a good job now, or I’ll put the curse of God on ya, hear?’ She laughed. I did not laugh."
Certain things should never come back in style, even after thirty years. Anita Bryant is one of them.
Anita Bryant; Miss Oklahoma, 1958; 2nd Runner-Up, Miss America, 1959, was the official spokesperson of the Florida Citrus Commission. She had the intellectual capacity and charm of that Katherine Harris. In the mid-1970s, Anita decided that it was up to her to Save America from itself. Her target was what she identified as the homosexual agenda to destroy the Christian society. However, in the Playboy interview, she also said that Jews, Moslems, Pygmies, Eskimos and atheists were destined to be sent to an eternal, fiery hell by her loving God. She also expressed her opinion that oral sex was in all cases sinful, and that women were by design weaker than men.
Poor Anita became "the cannon fodder for comedians everywhere"; the media treated her like a joke, as well; and her crusade cost her the $100,000 contract with the Florida Citrus Commission (which was eventually, and briefly, renewed), her job with the Orange Bowl Parade, a contract for her own tv variety show, and countless other bookings.
Playboy would later refer to her interview as "not so much as an examination of backlash against homosexuals or even religious intolerance, but as a psychological profile – in the subject’s own words – of a true believer." (The Playboy Interview: Classic Conversations; 1981)
{2} Fox News Sunday
CHRIS WALLACE: Let’s start with your choice of a running mate. Of all the people you could have chosen, of all the Republican leaders you’ve known for years, great thought, can you honestly say that Sarah Palin is the best person to put a heartbeat away from the presidency?
MCCAIN: Oh, yes. She’s a — she’s a partner and a soul-mate.
John McCain’s choice of a "soul-mate" for his vice president has generated a lot of interest across the country. Perhaps it would be interesting to take an informal profile of Sarah Palin. In doing so, I think that we might find that Sarah has some common personality traits with Anita Bryant.
There are, of course, significant differences between the two. Anita was the mother of four children, while Sarah is the mother of five. Anita was a beauty contestant from Florida, while Sarah was a beauty contestant from Alaska. Anita was a singer, and Sarah played the flute. Thus, in many important ways, the two are as distinct as any two dandelions growing on opposite sides of the republican lawn.
There are also similarities. Just as Anita Bryant became a national joke, many people found McCain’s VP choice to be hysterical. The danger in that is that issues of hysteria – Greek for "wandering womb" – are generally considered insensitive. No greater example of this can be found than in the internet rumor, now being repeated in some corporate media sources, that Sarak Palin’s fifth child may not be her own. This rumor is widely considered to be one of two things: (1) a Rovian plot to make democrats look bad; or (2) the gospel truth, which Rovians are trying to keep secret, least it sink Palin’s candidacy.
I prefer to focus on the word "histrionic," which comes from the Latin root pertaining to an actor on stage. Now, histrionic is one of them there fancy words that psychiatrists use. And even Anita Bryant herself warned against the dangers of the psychiatrists’ black art in the Playboy interview: "…it was so painful – it was like I felt I’d be committing a sin by going to a psychiatrist ….. I thought it would be denying Jesus. And I knew that a lot of psychiatrists tell you things that are totally contrary to Biblical teachings …." So when her marriage was in a trouble so deep that her theology alone could not repair it, Anita and her husband went to see a psychologist. Better safe than sinfully sorry.
Yesterday, among the people who came to my home was a friend who is a practicing psychologist. And when we discussed Sarah Palin, that word "histrionic" came up. To keep this discussion simple, I’ll use a layman’s mnemonic semi-definition of "praise me" to describe some of the personality traits we might see in both Anita and Sarah:
(1) P: as in "provocative" behavior. Anita hiking her skirt, and other related seductive behaviors, sometimes found in beauty queens.
(2) R: as in "relationships," which can often be mistaken for being more intimate than they actually are; think of Anita calling the Playboy interviewer "boyfriend."
(3) A: as in "attention," which is the center they seek.
(4) I: as in "influenced," which they easily are. Anita’s husband was her manager; Sarah has followed both Patrick Buchanan and John McCain.
(5) S: as in speaking style, used in a manner that feigns insight on the surface, but which tends to be shallow underneath. Sarah, for example, has identified the Pledge of Allegiance as coming from the Founding Fathers.
(6) E: as in "emotional lability," often with a curious shallowness.
(7) M: as in "make up," meaning the use of physical appearance to draw attention to ones’ self.
(8) E: as in "exaggerated," which describes their theatrical behavior.
Anita Bryant found her move to the higher-focused level on the national stage to be rather uncomfortable. Time will tell if Sarah Palin will have a similar experience. I suspect that she will.
First, while the owners of the corporate media are promoting John McCain, a growing number of journalists are finding his grumpy, off-camera personality to be toxic. And journalists tend to look to make a reputation by bringing a public figure down. Sarah Palin has never been on this stage before, where a single error can cement your reputation in the two months before the November election. More, people in the media and on the internet will be investigating her personal history to an extent that she would have difficulty being fully prepared for.
Under public pressure, the "Praise the Lord" folks often are exposed as unattractive "Praise Me" types, that quickly become the public’s favorite punch-line. In fact, that result is far more common than their becoming vice president. I think that John McCain will find his employment options severely limited this November, in part because of his lack of judgement in selecting Sarah Palin.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
