Ruth Marcus hits back at Federalist columnist for his gratuitous sexism/ageism toward her

[Tanuki]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/02/ruth-marcus-federalist-strega-nona-insult/

..."Eddie Scarry, a writer for the conservative website the Federalist, was unhappy with my column about Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Graham’s warning of “riots in the streets” if former president Donald Trump is prosecuted over the classified information he had at Mar-a-Lago. When I clicked on his piece, the dePaola reference appeared as a strikethrough— “Strega Nona look-alikecolumnist Ruth Marcus” — which I took to be a kind of sorry not sorry way of hurling an insult without having to own it.

Sorry not sorry, but that won’t work. My column was an argument about ideas — about how prosecutors should deal with public response to controversial cases. Disagreement on the merits is fair game; bring it on. But why are looks relevant? What is it that impels Scarry to go there?
...

But I’ve been thinking a good bit recently about the toxic intersection of misogyny and ageism, so this time I’m going to speak up. I’m going to speak up because there are a lot of women who might be less well-established in their careers, less confident of their abilities, less resilient. Who would be too worried about the backlash — and, frankly, too embarrassed about having been described as old and ugly — to call out the Eddie Scarrys of the world.
....
I’m going to speak up because men, by and large, don’t have to put up with this crap, and because women, too often, are cowed into silence. If we’re quiet, the abuse continues. If we complain, we are strident harridans.
...

Scarry, it turns out, isn’t new to this game. He had his 15 minutes of fame in 2018 when he tweeted a photo of newly elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — well, specifically, of AOC’s backside — with the snarky comment, “I’ll tell you something: that jacket and coat don’t look like a girl who struggles.” Scarry ended up deleting the tweet, but not, apparently, learning from the incident."...(more)