Monday, June 25, 2012

Sumpreme Court Justice as a Feminist Trophy

Supreme Court Justices

Here is a much larger photo, to better view
the facial expressions I write about below.
[Click on the image for an even bigger version]


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Laura Wood, over at the Thinking Housewife, has posted a 2012 photo of the Supreme Court Justices. One outstanding thing, by the standards of our feminist era, is that only three of the six, or 33%, are female. Shouldn't that be 50% female by now, if not more? The other outstanding thing is the wide grins (it doesn't look like smiles to me) of Sotomayer and Kagan compared to the tortured half-smile and body language of the other female justice, Ginsburg, who is leaning away from the group. Perhaps Ginsburg is the most realistic of the three women, realizing that our feminist era still hasn't made men subservient to women, despite the benign-looking smiles of the men. She looks like one of those tough grandmothers, who is realistic about her family's dynamics, and who gets things done. Interestingly, she is also the only one married of the three women, and is a widow after fifty-six years of marriage. She has two children and four grandchildren. Sotomayer divorced her husband in 1983 after seven years of marriage and no children. Kagan never married.

None of the men have the wide grins of the two women. Even Breyer's smile is more jovial (it goes into his eyes), rather than the plastic grin of Kagan, or the exuberance of Sotomayer - she looks like she's mockingly laughing. Scalia is downright sinister. Thomas simply has a scowl, which bookends well with Ginsburg's tortured half (quarter) smile. Supreme Court Justice isn't some (feminist) trophy to hang up. The men realize that more than the women.