When there could only be one

Barbara Walters considered Diane Sawyer a threat. The narrative at the time was that there could only be one female television journalist on a show, and Walters wanted it to be her, not Sawyer. They competed fiercely, with Walters even going so far as to go around ABC President Roone Arledge to try to steal a White House interview with then President Clinton from Sawyer. I do think there is a generational divide. Women who began their careers in the seventies do seem programed to compete with other women who are peers. I’ve seen it, and it’s ugly. Women are taught to compete with other women from the time they are young. For attention, for boys or men, for popularity and now, with social media, for the ephemera of the ersatz accolades of that digital cesspool. Women are taught to judge other women from childhood. Who is pretty, who is smart, who is fat, who runs fastest, who is weird. Am I pretty, smart, fat, weird? I know young teens with the pristine complexions of dewy youth who have been convinced they need a ten-step skin care routine to forestall the effects of aging, before they are old enough to drive. Because competition is lucrative and strategic. If we’re struggling to be the prettiest, the most youthful looking, we’ll spend billions on skin care regimens, diet and fitness, makeup, and clothing. If we’re fighting over who gets the job, the attention, the accolades, who is torn down and who is built up, we’re less likely to link arms and stop the men in power from taking away more of our rights to equal pay, parental leave, healthcare and bodily autonomy. We’re too powerful if we cooperate. A house divided and all that. Get full access to Fierce Grace at speirolo.substack.com/subscribe