reifying the presumption of heterosexuality

So...this past Monday I attended this. And it was outstanding. Really, truly outstanding. However, content re. foreign policy, attempts at eradicating genocide, and Barackarama aside, I found myself unable to refrain from commenting about something far less contentful--less obvious--but nonetheless important, imo. Or at least, for me, really galling.

But in order for what I'm irritated by to make sense there are some things you have to know first. Here's the thing about watching Samantha Power speak. She's dynamic. She's passionate. She's wicked smart. She's off-the-charts engaging. She's ridiculously articulate and ridiculously precise. I could go on.... In short, she's got that thing, *that thing*. That certain je ne sais quoi.

And, and, *and*...she seems like a nice person. Like a good egg. Moreover, she's not just fighting The Good Fight, she's fighting The Big-Picture All-Over-the-World Good Fight, for chrissake. Plus, and this is my personal favorite, she said, "George Bush had a boy crush on Sergio Vieira de Mello." Yes, she actually said that. I mean, really folks, who says such things? That won me over totally, and my intellectual crush was already well on its way to fruition.

And lest you think I'm biased, quotes from the following:

"[S]he commands a presence all her own."

"Somehow, through her broad smile and her simmering energy, this protest doesn't come off as a whine, but maybe even something that adds to her valor, as evidenced by the swarm around her afterward. Students are swept up in the romance of her, the responsibility she personifies."

"Richard Holbrooke says of Power. "I can name you only a handful of journalists with that commitment: Newsday's Roy Gutman, who won the Pulitzer. He was the guy who really uncovered the genocide in Bosnia. Christiane Amanpour, when she was in the Balkans for CNN. David Halberstam in Vietnam. There are very few voices like that."

High praise indeed. On a more personal note, not only did this woman strike me as all of the above but she also seemed truly sincere. Utterly genuine. And also very much like the kind of person I'd like to have a beer with.

Finally, George Clooney, no slouch at roundball, has called her the best he's ever played with. Oh, wait, *female*. The best female with whom he's ever played. That's important. An important qualification. To wit,

"And she's tough in the paint. (She once aspired to be a sports announcer.) Her pal George Clooney shot around with her with such vigor that his dormant ER skills had to come into play: "It was me trying to take advantage of her inside game by breaking her finger," he jokes in an e-mail, confirming that when it comes to female hoops opponents, "she's the best I've played against."

But back to the gall. Back to what's been bugging me for going on two days now. All of the above is in the service of contextualizing the real irritation that provoked this post. You see, "apparently" in virtue of what's been said about her, written about her, and her personal mannerisms and communicative style, there might be "some confusion," shall we say, as to whose team she's on.

And, again, just from my first-person perspective I have to say that I'dve been surprised if she batted *solely* for the home team. Home and away seemed entirely possible, if not more likely. Just sayin'.

So here we go...in the article referenced above (appearing in Mens's Vogue,) there is also the following sentence:

"Though she's formidable in conflict, Rohde stresses that she's also a fun confidante, phoning in after highs and lows in her relationships with men, and ever-eager to talk Bosox box scores."


Now, just to provide some context, Rohde is a a journalist who was captured in Bosnia and whose release Power lobbied for, as a mere first-year law student at Harvard, and now they're BFF.

But the issue in the sentence....WTF?!?

What the sentence strikes me as actually *meaning* is the following: "Listen up everybody, this woman might very well appear or *does* appear, for all intents and purposes, to be a lesbian/queer, but she's NOT, she's really freaking *NOT*, OK?"

And this overt pronouncement of her sexual preference for men strikes me as extra-crispy glaring given the presumption of heterosexuality. I mean, if Power is really heterosexual then why say anything *at all*? I mean, not saying anything at all is what everyone always does. All the time.

Just to bring the point home...no one (outside of the non-heterosexual community(ies), of course) ever, never ever, says, "My friend who's a doctor keeps having to end all his relations with WOMEN because they can't seem to get over the fact that they both absolutely have to sleep on the right side of the bed," or "My friend Madison, in all of her relationships with MEN, really gets the short end of the stick. And none of us can figure out why."

Can someone please clarify what's going on here? Or explain. Something. I mean, really. I just *do not* understand.