Katie Couric Gives Away the Game

And now on to Katie Couric. I expect everyone has already seen this little clip. You really should watch it for the breathy cheerfulness. But if you have bad internet (like I do) here is a snip of what she said,

“In the later stages of development, it’s when your brain is wired, and sometimes a surge of testosterone can make… a female fetus feel as if that baby is male or that person is male,” she said. “And the opposite, if there’s not enough testosterone.”
“It’s so interesting,” she concluded. “But it’s really about biology and people don’t realize that.”

She and Ellen are sitting in big chairs, chatting, as is the American way. They sit and chat as if they are just two ordinary friends, drinking coffee and chatting. The cameras move silently back and forth getting the best angle, the perfectly made up smile, the light sparkles. We all sit watching two ordinary people just chatting.

I sometimes sit with friends and chat. And we do talk about interesting things. The absence of cameras, of course, means it’s just a meaningless cup of hot liquid. It takes star power to confer importance. And that power is wielded by making us feel that we are all the same, all sitting together in our big comfortable chairs, except for the audience, of course, who has to perch forward in anxious applauding awe.

That’s why it’s so great for these two women to unwittingly confer personhood on the unborn. In one bright crisp television moment they have ceded the entire argument to their enemies. Did you catch the smooth transition from “fetus” to “baby” there? That’s right Ms. Couric. We are absolutely talking about a baby.

Interestingly, babies are bathed in all kinds of hormones throughout their sojourn in their mother’s wilderness. Many secret things happen to them that we try to understand from the outside–testing, measuring, trying to capture glimpses of who they’ll be when they come forth into the light.

Ms. Couric is happy for that life to go out free and clear as long as her preferred political proclivities are affirmed by that small person. As long as the baby can feel its male or femaleness, and as long as that feeling is opposite of its biological sex, that baby gets to live. What generosity of spirit! Perhaps all newborn infants could quickly self identity, could signal somehow that they have the appropriate political feelings about themselves.

I mean, for real, if we can just let all the babies be born and let them live long enough to let us know, even with language, or maybe in carefully curated play, what their feelings about their gender are, that would be such mercy! Plus, I think it might be harder to do away with a five year old who turns out to be biologically female and also feels like a girl. But even so, even if that youngster feels any which way, at least they haven’t had to die.

I wish Ellen and Ms. Couric would turn their sites on the African American infant and worry about that baby’s gendered feelings. Imagine what good they could do! I wonder if Ms. Cecil Richards is gnawing anxiously on her fingernails and trying to figure out how to get Ms. Couric to be quieter.

As per usual, I’m sickened by the Aesthetics, or what other people call Optics. Two blond, rich, white women chatting coolly away about what is being knit in secret, in the mystery of the womb, when so many of those who don’t make it out alive are black and brown. All that was missing was a third chair for Ms. Richards, coffee at the ready, bright brittle smile in place.

If I’ve made you feel bleak, I’m sorry. Go check out the fantastic work of the Radiance Foundation. Every Life has a purpose they say, even the infant, even the black and brown ones. I’m so delighted that Ms. Couric gave away the game. Its like all the prayer is working. Imagine.