Matt Drudge has linked to a Los Angeles Times article by Robin Abcarian about Katie Couric's perpetual association with the P-word: "perky." She is NOT happy with the word.
A spokesman for Couric, who declined to be interviewed for this story, said he thinks the word has attached to her like a limpet because of simple journalistic laziness. "It's an incomplete depiction of a versatile multidimensional success story," said Matthew Hiltzik.
Following up on a piece in the New York Observer, Abcarian quotes Connie Chung complaining about the G-word ("gravitas") as sexist. (Earth to Connie: if you didn't want to be stuck with allegedly demeaning labels, you should have told Dan Rather that there was NO way you were co-anchoring from Tonya Harding's skating rink.) Here's how it goes:
There may be such a thing as a perky man (Richard Simmons comes to mind), but in reality, "perky" belongs in the realm of adjectives used to modify women. Its antonym, "gravitas," is presumed to apply to men only. (Tell that to Margaret Thatcher.) " 'Gravitas' is a code word," according to Connie Chung. Chung, who co-anchored the "CBS Evening News" with Dan Rather in the mid-1990s, told Newsweek for its cover story that people who say Couric lacks gravitas are implicitly endorsing a sexist point of view. "It has an offensive, chauvinistic connotation that should not be applied to any newswoman today."But Camille Paglia, a feminist who is often at odds with the feminist establishment, thinks many women possess gravitas, a term that was applied to the Roman senators of antiquity, who were expected to demonstrate leadership and sobriety. She would exclude Couric but include California Sen. Dianne Feinstein ("I really regret that she has not run for president; she has far more gravitas than Hillary Clinton"), the novelist Toni Morrison and the late writers Ayn Rand, Lillian Hellman and Simone de Beauvoir. "Women, if they ever expect to ascend to the presidency and be commander in chief, had better learn what 'gravitas' is and stop blowing it off as some sort of backlash word," she said.
When it comes to Couric, Paglia, who is not a fan, said simply, "Perky, yes, perky … and girly, OK? That's the problem."
In 1994, Paglia said she was interviewed by Couric during a book tour. "I found her pleasant but weightless, depthless. Backstage in the green room, she said to me with a look of wonderment in her eyes, 'But Camille, why do you say all those controversial things when you know you will be criticized?' I was dumbfounded."
Then the Times article goes south with the annoying whine of the "Professor of Pop Culture," the omnipresent Robert Thompson, who always says something glib and liberal (gliberal?):
When an adjective is so gender specific, and tinged (as some believe) by a slightly patronizing odor, the question must be asked: Is "perky" — particularly when used to describe a middle-aged woman who will earn a reported $15 million a year to read the nightly news — a sexist term?
"I have no problem with it," said Stuart Fischoff, senior editor of the Journal of Media Psychology. "It's slightly derisive, but … perky is perky."
Others, including the subject herself, who once told an interviewer, "I don't do perky," find it offensive.
"In the end, it's all sexism," said Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. "If I were Katie Couric and someone described me as perky, I would hit them upside the head. It's just a ridiculous thing to be talking about," he added with a self-aware chuckle.
Some have even suggested that Couric might think about changing her name from the diminutive Katie to her given name, Katherine, when she takes over at CBS in the fall.
That idea made Thompson nearly sputter. "That would be considered the most ridiculously egregious attempt to gain gravitas. If you were going to change your name to Katherine to get rid of the 'perky' thing, maybe you should just knock out a tooth or scowl more often or put a big devil's head tattoo on your cheek."
Ah, but let's note that in her "serious" days as junior Pentagon correspondent and in her early days as "Today" host (which she began at the tender TV news age of 34) she was "Katherine" on the chyron.
