It’s The Kitchen, Stupid
If you ask any woman of a certain age about her favorite movies, invariably she will respond with the name of one or more of the rom-coms of Nancy Meyers including It’s Complicated and Something’s Gotta Give. These films are basically variations on a theme of a successful woman with a complex love life who becomes involved with a charming rogue played by actors with similar real-life characteristics such as Jack Nicholson and Alec Baldwin. But as attractive as the characters and the snappy dialogue are, the real star of these films is the kitchen. Because it is a fundamental truth that women love kitchens.
Large luxurious kitchens with ginormous center aisles equipped with every cooking device available at Williams Sonoma that function as the center of life itself, where women go to fulfill every human desire except, of course, love, which is the ultimate point of the plots of these movies.
It is perhaps with these movies in mind that the Republicans chose Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama to offer the response to last week’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden that was, yes, set in a kitchen in an effort to win over the mostly white suburban women who have been alienated by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the unapologetic misogyny of former President Trump.
However, Britt’s kitchen failed to offer the inviting warmth and functionality of the kitchens in Meyers’ movies and Britt utterly lacked the humor, wit and appeal of the characters played by Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep. It looked more like a Potemkin Village version of a kitchen in which the cupboards were likely devoid of any cooking utensils or serving dishes at all.
In Britt’s America, America is a hellhole in which an undocumented migrant is lurking in every corner ready to sexually assault and kill your college-age daughter. Her misleading anecdotes reeked of hyperbole. Her breathy delivery only served to overdramatize the alternative reality that resonates within MAGA world.
Sometimes real events are so ridiculous that comedy adds little to the actual occurrence. However, it is likely that Scarlett Johansson’s brilliant parody of Britt’s presentation on SNL will live on far longer than Britt’s political career.
In an election year in which Biden’s age is a major issue, the MAGA Babe was meant to offer a contrast between a young attractive woman and a doddering, gaffe-prone old man. But, to the Democrats’ delight, Biden came out swinging in his SOTU address, and his welcome pugilism raised Democrats’ spirits. But Britt’s “speech” probably boosted him even more as it demonstrated Republican’s continuing cluelessness about women voters, not to mention that her smiley nightmarish demeanor made voters wonder if they would let her lead their daughters’ Brownie troops.
But, getting back to the kitchen, Britt’s could have used some evidence that hers is actually functional. Unlike the MAGA-stymied Congress she is part of.
