The Tragedy Pimp

In her piece, "Reigning in the Court of Silence: Women and Rhetorical Space in Postbellum America," Nan Johnson argues that rhetorical space has routinely and systematically excluded women, relegating them to the quiet private space in the home.  One of the works she cites is Rose Terry Cooke's "Real Rights of Women" and her identification of the "freedom shriekers who forget their position and their womanhood, who leave their families neglected and their homes forsaken to rant on platforms and usurp pulpits," as one of the most detrimental images of American women as public speakers.  She writes, "Cooke's image of 'shriekers' and 'ranters' is a damning one that constructs the public rhetorical performance as an act near to madness and one that compromises the efforts of sensible women to move forward."  The vocal woman, in Cooke's view, threatens not only her male counterparts but also the advancement and progress of other women acting within societally acceptable rhetorical limits.

One would think that at this time, women have the freedom to voice their opinions without fear of hinging on madness in the public perception.  The images that conservative political commentators Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck paint of left-wing anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, however, would indicate otherwise, revealing the extent to which rhetorical space is still exclusive and very much gendered.  In 2004, Sheehan began her peace campaign against the unjust war in Iraq that cost her son, Casey's, life.  Among her antiwar efforts included letters to the president, speeches at protests and rallies, and even a camp-out--dubbed Camp Casey--outside of then-President Bush's property in Crawford, Texas.

Beck and O'Reilly have torn Sheehan apart, aggressively attacking her as insincere and insane.  On the January 4 broadcast of his radio show, O'Reilly stated the "fact" that Sheehan was being "run by far-left elements who are using her, and she's dumb enough to allow it to happen."  On the January 10 broadcast of his show, The Glenn Beck Program, Beck labeled Cindy Sheehan "A pretty big prostitute" and later "a tragedy pimp" because of what he perceives as her vocal use of her son's death to gain fame and money.  On a later segment, Beck even called her "shockingly naive, dangerously crazy, or more likely both."

What is so striking is the smearing suspicion and disbelief that Sheehan could be legitimate in her protests.  By automatically resorting to familiar images of the naive grieving mother, the attention-hungry tragedy pimp, or the insane shrieker, commentators like O'Reilly and Beck undermine Sheehan's oratorical performances and message.  It is crazy, even treasonous, they posit, that this military mother has spoken out against the war, an act they say is inappropriate and disrespectful.  In doing so, they restrict Sheehan's rhetorical space and legitimacy, ultimately attempting to squeeze her actual words out of the picture by questioning instead her sanity and her patriotism.

One step further: many of Sheehan's critics point to her as a bad mother, reinforcing the lack of faith "that a woman could minister to the home and the public affairs of the nation at the same time" (Johnson, 234).  Johnson cites Reverend Potts and his fear that women who "seek rhetorical power outside the home...will lose it in the home" leading to the implosion of the home and the moral destruction of the nation.  Put another way, in Potts's view, women cannot be effective mothers and wives and public speakers at the same time.  Critics of Sheehan have certainly adopted this line of thinking to undermine her rhetoric.   Critics pointed first at Sheehan's hysteria as a "stereotypical mother" but then began to criticize her for being a bad mother by neglecting the rest of her kids and disrespecting the death of her son Casey.  One poll for the "World's Crappiest Mother" succinctly summarizes much of this criticism by condemning her for "exploiting one dead kid, [being] too cheap busy to buy a headstone, [and for] abandoning her other kids."

In the case of Cindy Sheehan, her role as a woman and as a mother seem to matter more to her critics than what she was actually saying.  Perhaps we haven't come as far as we hope in regards to granting women the freedom to be vocal about their views. 

Here's a snippet of Beck on Sheehan.