Boston is Not New Orleans and Ayanna Pressley is Not Blanche DuBois
So imagine you win a hard-fought re-election campaign. But you also happen to be the first African American woman to serve in this position. What do you think the local press will say about you?
Well if you are Ayanna Pressley, the first African American woman to serve on Boston’s city council, apparently the answer is to call you “Blanche DuBois” and imply you only won because you’re a woman.
On Tuesday Pressley won re-election to Boston’s at-large seat on the city council with what even the Boston Globe deemed was an “aggressive ground game” with efforts to “reach out to voters in all sections of the city.” But despite what some might say was an impressive campaign, others, like the Boston Herald, felt the need to say Pressley only won because of the help of “kind strangers” and “editorial writers.”
Peter Gelzinis writes:
Blanche DuBois, aka Ayanna Pressley, was carried across the finish line last night in grand style by the kindness of city voters who basically answered this freshman councilor’s distress call.
One would think Gelzinis understands that people vote for whom they want to represent them, and voters aren’t just doing Pressley a personal favor.
He continues the metaphor:
She was seen as needing help. And her colleagues, both at-large and district councilors, rallied to her side, much like those “kind strangers” offered aid to Tennessee Williams’ wilted heroine Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Also despite what seems to be a remarkably good campaign effort by Pressley it’s funny that even a letter writer to the Boston Globe noted that the next morning the paper was more concerned about Pressley’s opponent’s loss than her win.
What does it take for a woman winning an election to get some respect in the Boston press?
Published by Kate McCarthy on 11/10/2011