In an
interview with NPR Fresh Aire host Terry Gross on February 9, author/VP spouse Lynne Cheney gave an unchallenged "both ends against the middle" analysis of lesbianism/female intimacy.
During the interview, Cheney is asked by Gross about the new Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Specifically, Gross queried Cheney about Spellings' quest to remove the Department of Education seal and all references of DOE funding from the animated children's show, "Postcards from Buster". Spellings' objection to Buster stems from an episode where on a trip to Vermont, Buster meets some children with lesbian parents.
(more after the jump)
Cheney responds that she believes parents want control over what their children see and hear, especially in terms of things having to do with sexuality. (The
Buster episode in question contains no references to sex or sexuality in any way. The children have two women as parents. There is no reference to their sexuality).
Later in the interview, Gross asks Cheney about her book Sisters,which contains the following passages:
"'To my Helena, my dearest lover...Thine always, A.T.' Helen and Amy Travers? No, it couldn't be, simply couldn't."
"Helen, my joy and my beloved...Let us go away together, away from the anger and the imperatives of men...There will be only the two of us...In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl..."
"Society as a whole might conclude that women were sexless creatures, but she knew otherwise. She also knew that claiming a relationship was not erotic, thinking it could not be would not keep it from being so. There could be no tearing off of one's clothes and lustily hopping into bed, not if one would preserve the love-religion. But the loving words and the warm embrace were permitted, and the kiss before sleep, the arousal gentle enough so that its nature would not have to be acknowledged."
"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve...-- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved...she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her."
Cheney tells Gross that these passages aren't about lesbianism and that those who believe so are guilty of "presentism": assigning the notions of today to pioneer women as some, Cheney says, are trying to now do with Lincoln.
Cheney further goes on to claim that a loving relationship between two women isn't necessarily sexual. Indeed. But here's the problem: she just told Gross a few minutes earlier that two women in the Buster episode are sexual, even though there are absolutely no sexual references.
Of course Gross doesn't challenge Cheney on this very duplicitous labeling...which is probably why Cheney agreed to the interview in the first place.