This sentence has become a real winner – you can buy it emblazoned on all sorts of merchandise – and UD agrees with the sentiment.
In fact she’d go so far as to say that part of her applauds when high-profile women behave very badly indeed.
People sentimentalize women; they think they’re all warm fearful law-abiding domestic creatures. True equality will never occur until people begin to regard women as – for instance – capable of the same rigid unmitigated viciousness of which some men are capable.
So in a strange way UD privately cheers when Ruth Madoff reveals herself every bit the Bonnie to Bernie’s Clyde:
Broken victims of her husband’s suspected Ponzi scheme are fighting for pennies on the dollar, but Ruth Madoff says $62 million she squirreled away is none of their business.
See, I sentimentalize women. When I started reading the Madoff saga I saw poor Ruth, martyred Jewish mother… Or I saw Michael Corleone’s waspy wife. She knew… She didn’t know… She loved him, that’s all she knew!… She was protecting the children! … Here’s how I pictured her:
But Ruth is a svelte postmodern concoction, in every way the equal of her husband.
She’ll fight for her bag of goodies.
