Ok, I will admit right up front that I live in Austin, Texas, but I don’t fit into the middle of the bell curve for Texans. I watch football now and then but only watch the Longhorns when a friend asks me and I’ve never been able to appreciate John Kelso’s column in the Austin American-Statesman. Over the past 30+ years I’ve lived in Austin, I’ve tried to understand the attraction for this columnist but I just don’t get it.
As the Texas Tribune pointed out in a recent article:
It would’ve helped, maybe, if it had been funny.
But at least in my opinion, he isn’t. He just comes across as another old, white guy that needs to follow that old western movie cliché and just ride off into the sunset. His time is past and the world won’t accept it anymore. And this is from me, someone who cares little about being politically correct.
In the Kelso column the Texas Tribune commented on, Kelso is off on some rant about Anita Perry (Gov. Rick Perry’s wife) not being happy. The Texas Tribune article focused on whether Kelso was out-of-bounds by writing a whole column on whether Gov. Perry’s wife was happy or not.
My issue is very different. Not only do I not care whether Anita Perry is happy or not, I don’t understand why Kelso would bother to try to figure out whether Anita Perry is happy or not by analyzing (and I use the term loosely) whether Anita Perry appeared to be happy in some photographs. However, I do care and am insulted by some of the phrases Kelso uses in his article.
Kelso’s writing is very sexist. First of all, just the title, “Somebody needs to goose Anita Perry to get a smile out of her” is offensive. Then further in the article, Kelso uses phrases like
I can make it all better for you, sweetheart.
and
She has that goofy blissful look that all brides have when they realize they’re about to get control of your credit cards.
How condescending and not funny, especially considering that because of the recession, many more women are the breadwinners of the family.
Discrimination comes in many forms. Phrases like “My best friend is a …” (fill in your own favorite noun) say more about the speaker than the target. Stereotypes can be very damaging and should not be used just to make a feeble joke. That is just plain insulting.
But what should I expect from a newspaper that is light on news and more concerned with whether the Longhorns … team is going to win next weekend.
If you read some of my other posts, you know I am not a big fan of Rick Perry as governor of the state of Texas. On a personal level, however, I’ve met Gov. Rick Perry and his wife a few times and think they are very nice people. Austin, you deserve better and should let the Statesman know that writing like Kelso’s is not funny and is unacceptable behavior.
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