You forgot convicted felon

Surely I'm not the only grrrl who was struck dumb by the announcement that Martha Stewart would be addressing the women of Texas as a keynote speaker at the Texas Conference for Women.

Now, I know this conference is not about feminist consciousness raising. And "Martha Stewart" is probably only rivaled by "Madonna" and maybe "Oprah" in popularity as subject matter for feminist analysis and debate. Avoiding that rabbit hole, (although, it's a very alluring rabbit hole... and one I may revisit later), let's just say we accept that the Texas Conference for Women is actually intended to support women's economic advancement, provide networking opportunities for women and train women to be leaders in their communities (i.e., to indoctrinate and integrate women better into the very social, economic and political systems that only function properly on the backs of overworked and underpaid women).

Say all that is ok! (Ignore all that parenthetical nonsense. It's just crazy talk!)

Like a joke that's only funny because it's true, the selection of Martha Stewart as keynote speaker reflects layers of irony in the current political leadership's (mis)appropriation of the rhetoric of values and the "american dream"--and the underlying message is clear.

In this version of the values based approach to achievement, the "self-made man" (or woman) succeeds by hook or by crook. Image is everything. Cheating on your taxes, insider trading, mark-to-market accounting are all just part of what it takes to get ahead--like, really ahead, which is the only kind of getting ahead that really matters.

Sure, it's usually best if you don't get caught. But even if you do, it's ok.

The Enron crooks go down in history as "the smartest guys in the room."

Martha Stewart got caught. And she did one better than ole Ken Lay: she lived to tell about it.

She did her time. And prison didn't break her will to succeed! Thousands of jokes by late night talk show hosts couldn't bring her down. Now we can honor her great wealth (the true sign of her greatness) and celebrate her resilience in the face of adversity. Truly, the epitome of every "american's" dream.

Whew!

OK... satire doesn't always serve to bring the present moment to it's deepest purpose.

Seriously, I can think of several women who are alive today who could have been chosen to speak at this conference--some of them even within the limitations of definitions of success that serve to preserve the patriarchal status quo: Oprah and Madonna for starters—again, avoiding the question of whether (or to what degree) they function (either as historial people or cultural icons) to uphold or subvert the status quo)—at least they aren't convicted felons!

Here's a very short list of some brave and otherwise outstanding women who could have been invited:


Sherron Watkins: Enron whistleblower honored by Time magazine in 2002 as Person of the Year -- along with 2 other women whislteblowers: Cynthia Cooper (WorldCom) and Coleen Rowley (FBI).


Bethany McLean: journalist who broke the Enron accounting story while working for Fortune Magazine.


Loretta Ross: a native Texan who became one of hte first women to win a suit against the make of the Dalkon shield. She's an internatinoally known feminist and human rights activist.


Diane Wilson: A fourth-generation Texas shrimper, environmental justice advocate, civil disobedient, tireless opponent of global capital, and peace activist who helped found Code Pink.

(Oh, wait. I guess all these women were/have been/are trying to take down the system. I guess that's whay they weren't invited)