Scribbling Women

 By Marilyn Moore

“Scribbling Women” was the title of a special exhibit at the International Quilt Museum earlier this fall.  The phrase was taken from a letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a 19th century author; you’ll remember him as the author of “The Scarlet Letter.”  He said, bitterly, “America is now wholly given over to a damn mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash – and should be ashamed of myself if I did.”  A rising middle class of women in the 19th century meant that women had time to read, and to write…and they did.  In fact, women wrote the era’s best sellers.  Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” sold 300,000 copies in three months. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ “Gates Ajar” sold 80,000 copies by 1900.  After an initial printing of 750 copies, Susan Warner’s “The Wide, Wide Word” was in such demand that by 1852 it was on its fourteenth edition.  And Nathaniel Hawthorne?  Leading to his disgruntled statement about scribbling women, “The Scarlet Letter” sold 7700 copies in his lifetime.  His contemporary, Herman Melville, saw 3215 copies of “Moby Dick” sold in his lifetime.  (All information about 19th century books sold is from the “Scribbling Women” exhibit.)

This is not a blog about the quilts, though they were very engaging.  Take a look at the one on the right.  Equality before the Law.   Susan B. Anthony.  Joan of Arc.  Clara Barton.  Louisa Alcott. Elizabeth Browning. Elizabeth C. Stanton.  Quite a cast of learned and activist women.  Quilts such as this were sometimes auctioned for fundraising purposes, including abolitionist societies, Civil War hospitals, and early women's suffrage movements.  May have been a little threatening to some....

This is not a blog about the relative merits of the books written and sold by female and male authors in the 1800’s.  I recognize that “The Scarlet Letter” and “Moby Dick” are more well-known and more likely to have been read today than the books authored by the female writers, with the possible exception of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”  One might ask whether books that are selected as part of a standard reading list are more likely to be selected by male or female scholars….but that’s not what this blog is about, either.  

This blog is about scribbling women, and how very threatened some persons, mostly men, have been by women who write.  Obviously, Mr. Hawthorne was quite distressed.  I suspect both his livelihood and his reputation were threatened by scribbling women.  He is not alone.

Our current president, Donald Trump, appears to be quite threatened by scribbling women, those female reporters who cover his administration for national news outlets, both print and broadcast.  

Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lacey asked him about releasing the Epstein files. His response, “Quiet.  Quiet, piggy,” outraged women everywhere…and many men, too.  

“An ugly person, inside and out,” is how he described Katie Rogers who wrote the “New York Times” story about Trump’s declining health, energy, and acuity.

When asked by a female reporter aboard Air Force One what part of his body the MRI had been looking at, Trump said, "I have no idea. It was just an MRI.  It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing." 

To Mary Bruce, ABC’s White House correspondent, he said: “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? You’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person,” in response to a question about Mohammed bin Salman’s involvement in killing Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

When CBS Chief White House Correspondent followed up on the vetting of the Afghans who entered the country following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, he said, “Are you stupid?  Are you a stupid person?”

It’s a pattern, and the frequency and intensity are growing. These insults are not made to male reporters.  The insults are about the female reporters’ appearance and intelligence.  It looks to me as if our president is afraid of what scribbling women will write…and his response is intimidation and bullying to keep them from doing so.

It doesn’t work, of course.  Every one of these interactions has been reported by multiple media outlets.  The scribbling women are doing their jobs, reporting on the work of the President of the United States and his administration.  It’s wearing, I suspect.  Most professional women have experienced being intimidated and bullied, insulted about appearance and intelligence, all to keep them from speaking up, from doing their job, from being the best in their field. 

Perhaps most discouraging to me about these incidents is the lack of response from the reporters’ colleagues.  I get that it’s a competitive business, and that the next reporter to get a chance to speak wants to use that opportunity for a question, not to defend the previous reporter.  I could even buy the argument that being insulted and called names is part of the job, especially in the pressure cooker White House assignment, except that it’s so obviously not a part of the job for male reporters….

In this very complex and stressful life of our democracy, two scribbling women provide information and insights daily that I find helpful.  Heather Cox Richardson, History Professor at Boston University, writes “Letters from an American.”  She reports on and analyzes the events of the day, and she relates them to the full scope of US history, noting patterns, trends, and where we’ve been before.  Full citations are included for those who want to read further.  Joyce Vance, attorney and former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, writes “Civil Discourse” daily, in which she reports and analyzes the events of the day from her legal background, with references to the Constitution and to relevant case law.  You can find both on Substack, on Facebook, or by subscribing to their email distribution.  

I’m grateful to Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance for their work as scribbling women. I'm grateful to scribbling women reporters who show up every day to do their job and report on the happenings in this administration.  And I’m grateful to the untold hundreds of thousands of scribbling women who write a letter, send an email, or pick up the phone and call their members of Congress on issues they care about.  There is power in the collective of scribbling women.