Two Spiritedness And The New American Upper Class

The photo above has caused a stir this morning on several right-wing platforms. "Bonchie" at Red State has the conventonal take:

Notice anything? If you are politically astute and have paid attention to leftwing rhetoric over the last decade or so, what’s wrong with the picture will jump out immediately: Everyone is white.

Well, to be fair, there does appear to be one woman of Asian ancestry, but regardless, I’ve been assured that this ratio of whiteness is proof of systemic racism.

They're represented as the female Capitol press corps, surrounding outgoing Speaker Pelosi. Almost all of them have the exact same hairstyle, the 1960s Joan Baez that Ted Bundy is said to have favored, in which Ms Baez herself is seen at left, altthough what's puzzling is that Ms Baez has moved on, as shown below right. Indeed, they all have somewhat dull facial expressions with phony smiles, and they're all dressed in something like the minimalist upper-class style one might find at a Georgetown soirée, although from their faces, I would think they might be a little dull for that. But then, as an Ivy undergraduate back in the day, I sometimes went to Georgetown soirées, and come to think of it, they'd actually fit just fine.

Anyhow, here's Ms Baez, as the Germans would put it, aktuell. My wife tells me this hairstyle is practical now, and it's favored by the more down-to-earth reality show stars like Minnie Beets on Gold Rush. (On the other hand, we would not find Minnie Beets at a Georgetown soirée, even though Ms Baez attends such things with the likes of Dr Fauci.) Another conundrum as far as I can see is that Speaker Pelosi is anything but minimalist; she's shrill and histrionic, and in fact, her own hairstyle, like her face, is high-maintenance, as we saw when she got a special hair appointment for herself during the COVID lockdowns, when every other barber shop and hair salon was closed.

In fact, I've often wondered if Speaker Pelosi is actually a drag queen, an over-the-top antifeminist caricature, and this goes to another part of the two-spiritedness of the current American upper class. Drag queens are in. They mimic women, but their style is anything but minmalist. Take the case of Sam Brinton, one of the federal government’s first gender non-binary officials, currently sought by authorities on a felony warrant for a second instance of stealing designer luggage from an airport baggage carousel. Would we see Mx Brinton at a Georgetown soirée? As far as I can see, whether the answer is yes or no, there's a contradiction, or as it might be put, a two-spiritdness:

If the answer is yes, he'd be welcome, including in the outfit at left, then why were no gender-non-binary reporters included in the photo with the Speaker? If gender is just a social construct, why exclude biological men who identify as women from the photo? If it's claimed that there are none such in the Capitol press corps, my answer would be you've got to be kidding. They're just in the closet. Why not coax them out? Why the discrimination?

If the answer is no, the invitation lists for Georgetown soirées somehow always inadvertently leave out drag queens, then why the discrimination? And why, if they don't welcome drag queens, do they nevertheless favor shrill and histrionic figures like Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman Waters?

This is not a stable or sustainable state of affairs.