Sally Ride

Ben M. writes:

Is there something to physiognomy—“the assessment of a person’s character or personality from his outer appearance, especially the face”? When I first started reading ABC’s article about the death of Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, and saw her picture at the top of the page, I said to myself, “I’ll bet she’s a lesbian.” When I came to the end of the article, there it was—her female companion of 27 years.

What gave her away in the photograph? The eyes—lesbians tend to have these squinting eyes. The hair style. The leathery face. The boyish grin. The teeth not quite set right. The feel of an alien and furtive disposition.

Of course, the various articles now casually mention without explanation that someone is “survived by their companion” as if this is simply a natural fact of life and death and always has been …

LA replies:

See also Laura Wood’s article on Sally Ride, which begins:

WHEN Sally Ride was set to fly on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983 and thus become the first woman in space, Gloria Steinem said, “Millions of little girls are going to sit by their television sets and see they can be astronauts, heroes, explorers and scientists.”

This was of course a ridiculous statement. How many little girls had ever wanted to be astronauts? About as many who longed to be soldiers or fighter pilots. In other words, very few. Steinem’s real point, in keeping with her intense dislike of women, was that women should want to be astronauts and there was something wrong with them if they didn’t.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 24, 2012 11:44 AM | Send