Suzanne Fields

Art! Politics! Spectacle!

We've survived another spectacle of the Academy Awards, with the protesters and the preeners celebrating politics, talent and craft. We watched a lot of posers with attitude.

February 27, 2019

The female ascent to the top, on screen and stump

"Ah, women," doesn't quite have the resonance or ancient history of "amen," but if women had been as dominant in Biblical times as they are today, that might be how we would close our prayers today, though the word is derived from the ancient Greek meaning "truth" and has nothing to do with gender or even sex. Today, we're bombarded with changing images of women in the pop culture as well as in the larger culture, tracing a wide arc in politics and in both bedroom and boardroom.

February 20, 2019

Unusual allies join to oppose the Equality Act that would redefine sex

Radical feminists and conservative intellectuals make odd bedfellows, and you wouldn't expect to find them in bed at The Heritage Foundation. But these are odd times. They're united in support of the untrendy idea that biology, not "cultural identity," defines sex.

February 13, 2019

The Patriots are ‘Israel’s team,’ and the American game is blossoming

Football fans usually don't agree on much. Arguing is part of the fun. But nearly everyone agrees that this year's Super Bowl, won by New England by only 13-3, was a snoozefest. Still, it was a welcome respite from acrimonious politics.

February 6, 2019

Beware of the high-tech hustle

The culture pendulum swings inevitably and inexorably, and its wide arc often surprises us. Labels are nearly always limited to selected slices of reality, but they're convenient in marking important change.

January 30, 2019

The press gets a needed lesson in truth-telling

Donald Trump doesn't like The New York Times. Everybody knows that. So when a former executive editor of the newspaper of record offered a biting criticism of its performance the president thought he had found a like-minded friend, a colleague-in-arms who shares his dislike for the newspaper he calls the "enemy of the people," and a purveyor of "fake news."

January 23, 2019

What would Tony Soprano think of Donald Trump?

Tony Soprano is back, in the media if not in prime time. In the year of the Superhero, the anti-hero is old news, but the ghost of the mob boss of "The Sopranos," the end of the '90s blockbuster, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the premiere. "The Sopranos" was a true cultural and political icon, and Tony has been summoned from the grave to talk about what he would think about Donald Trump as the president.

January 16, 2019

When braying is the work of donkeys who can’t kick

A sexual revolution, like a political resolution, goes through unexpected change between rebellion and triumph. Consider the two big political explosions among women in the previous century. We're still counting up the collateral damage, along with a victory or two.

January 9, 2019

A truthful tale told without politics

Weary of being hit over the head with political righteousness, self-centered virtue, and glib judgments delivered left and right with arrogance and self-satisfaction? Tired of hearing about "us" versus "them," the nobles against the deplorables? Sick of being encouraged to sneer at "the other," whether Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, capitalist or socialist, anyone who disagrees with you on just about anything and is eager to tell you about it?

January 2, 2019

Looking forward in anger

'Tis the season to be angry. The president is angry at the Democrats for not allocating enough money to build the border wall. The Democrats are angry at the president for wanting one.

December 26, 2018

McPrude and the rites of love

Now #MeToo is about to become MePrude. Those villainous men who took advantage of power and position to stalk women at work and home have bequeathed a legacy of poison, and it's killing innocent flirtation. The latest casualty is a playful song about playful romance, the reluctance of young lovers to call it a night after an evening of delicious courtship.

December 19, 2018

When ‘Misinformation’ is named Word of the Year

This has been a rough year for news junkies. Today the abundance of sources enables massaging the news to fit personal prejudices and predispositions. It's the famous slogan of The New York Times, "All the news that's fit to print" distorted to "All the news that fits our bias, we print."

December 12, 2018

A week for celebrating history, tragedy, comedy

This was the week when life made a good imitation of theater. Shakespeare would have found abundant drama, enough to inspire new masterpieces of history, tragedy and comedy.

December 5, 2018

When women march to different drummers

It's not exactly a cat fight, and even calling it that is a no-no. But certain lionesses of culture and politics are growling, hissing, spitting and scratching at each other. Some of the growls are fiercer than others, but there's anger aplenty.

November 28, 2018

Surviving tribal politics in the season of Thanksgiving

Years ago I framed an old family photograph and put it in a prominent place for Thanksgiving visitors to see. Four of us are elegantly posed by the photographer, taking ourselves oh-so-seriously for the family album.

November 21, 2018

Is it reincarnation time again for Hillary Clinton?

A cat has nine lives. A woman sometimes has more than that. The feline of the species keeps coming up with surprises and you can see them most dramatically in politics. Hillary Clinton, for example, has been reincarnated more times than Shirley MacLaine, and she may be about to see whether the third time really does have the charm.

November 14, 2018

Several Democratic senators paid the price for mistreating Brett Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh has been sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court for only a month, and the memory of his confirmation hearings cast a strong shadow over the Tuesday congressional elections. You could ask Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota or Joe Donnelly in Indiana. Several Democrats in competitive races who voted against his confirmation lost. Joe Manchin from West Virginia, the only Democrat who voted to confirm him, won.

November 7, 2018

It’s tempting to look away to avoid the sight of anti-Semitism

"In the middle of the twentieth century, in the heart of civilized Europe, a massive enterprise was manufacturing death on a large scale. Was the free world aware of what was going on? Surely not. Otherwise it would have done something to prevent such a massacre. That was the consoling thought the prisoners clung to in order to protect their unwavering faith in humanity. Had they heard that all the details and all the aspects of the 'Final Solution' were known to the White House, they would have sunk into despair and resignation. But they discovered the truth only after the war."

October 31, 2018

Men, like feminism, are a-changing, with more change coming

Here's a thought. Donald Trump may be more a feminist than Hillary Clinton.

October 24, 2018

Coddling the closed American mind

Every generation looks back at the one that follows and asks, "What went wrong?" The answers find multiple causes inside the family and outside in politics, offering fragmented and provocative insights into how we got to the America we live in today.

October 17, 2018