George Bush is really doing the Ugly American thing up right on this trip to Russia. First that whole pig thing. Then the open mike (and the open mouth with food spitting out). Now, he’s gotten handsy with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. You’ve really got to see the video on this one.
Wolcott has some comments on this, including some stuff I think misses the mark, about the kinds of questions George is going to get from Laura for doing this, or what Merkel’s husband thinks. But married or not, it is not okay for a man to walk up behind a woman and invade her space by putting his hands on her — especially not when she’s the leader of a rather important country. It’s a power play, a reminder that women are there to be at the disposal of men. Wolcott, however, is a sharp guy, and he gets the possessiveness of this action:
Perhaps it was nothing more than Bush’s usual privileged-snot appropriation at play. A symptom of the same syndrome that has him hanging nicknames on people, and kissing bald men on the head. Reports in the Financial Times and elsewhere have indicated that Bush is hoping/planning to groom Merkel as the US’s number one ally to fill the spot of the fading Tony Blair, to whose troubles Putin wickedly alluded. It’s difficult to know what would be in it for Merkel or Germany, given the lopsidedness of the special relationship between Bush and Blair, where Blair stands stalwart on the War on Terror and for his orotund loyalty receives the contempt of his own people, cries of “poodle” in the press, and the back of Bush’s hand over global warming, trade, etc. But Bush has always been a taker, not a giver. He wasn’t giving Merkel a massage, he was taking possession of her, letting everybody know, “This little lady’s mine.”
Pam has more, including video of Bush using a nearby woman’s shirt to wipe his glasses on.
Lindsay says that Bush’s approach bears all the marks of a man practiced at the drive-by grope:
Every woman will recognize the guy who sidles up and starts “casually” giving you a backrub without even looking at you, because he wants to preserve deniability in case you freak out. Like any practiced groper, Bush stares right past Merkel as she recoils from his touch.
The play fails, but he just moves on, eyes averted, like it’s her problem. (“Oh my God, there’s a hysterical woman displaying inappropriate behavior! I’ll just pretend I don’t notice her egregious gaffe.”)
Yes, our president, the drive-by harasser.
She also gives us a link to Idealistic Pragmatist’s post on the cultural implications of the grope. Hint: not so good.
UPDATE: Terrence has a few thoughts as well:
As a gay man, I’ve had my share of unwelcome gropes. (And I’ve been know to grab a groper by the wrist, turn him to face me, and ask him what he thought he was doing.) It’s not funny or flattering. At best it’s assuming a familiarity that doesn’t exist between two people. At worst it’s a way of dehumanizing someone reducing them to a body part to be groped, and it’s a way of asserting dominance; an unspoken way of saying “I can put my hands on you any time I want, and there’s not much you can do about it.”
I saw this earlier today and thought about sending you an email about it. I’m afraid I was too shiftless, but you seem to have found it anyway.
To make the whole thing worse, in German culture you simply don’t touch someone without warning. It’s a far greater faux pas there than in the US. If this had happened 100 years ago, we’d probably be at war with Germany now. As it is, Shrub just blew another chance at making an overseas ally. If Merkel had any positive impression of Dubya earlier, it’s gone now.
She shoulda chewed him out. I would have loved to hear her say, “Excuse me, I’m the head of the German State. Would you have pulled that crap with Helmut Kohl? Adult diplomacy requires more than cute nicknames and fraternity behavior!”
If Merkel had any positive impression of Dubya earlier, it’s gone now.
Did you see the look on her face when he wouldn’t let up about the freaking pig? I think it was already gone.
“As it is, Shrub just blew another chance at making an overseas ally.”
One would hope that Merkel is a little more grown up than that (to change the policies of her government beacause W touched her).
Off topic, but I was watching him on the news yesterday, and he looked very old and tired. I think he fianlly reached the point where the presidency makes one look (and probably feel) much older than one’s actual age.
Booze does that too, RM.
I’ve heard that heroin use, insider stock trading and practicing human sacrifice do, also. No doubt Bush also engages in these things. I read it on DU!
Well, 1 for 3 isn’t bad. 2 for 3 if human sacrifice doesn’t require Satanic rituals.
And no, Merkel won’t deny the US ally status or whatever because of Bush’s behavior this week, but you can count on her having zero respect for him as a person, which won’t make things any easier.
New rule: Membership in a college social fraternity is an automatic disqualification for the US presidency. Penance can be paid in order to regain eligibility, but it must be steep.
Ooh. Can we make it a Man Law?
So much for putting *your* cat on the blog.
Early on, I recognized the nicknaming that Bush did as a form of bully behavior and wondered how the press played it up as something positive. I expect that this behavior has been going on for 6 years, and it is only now, when Bush’s popularity is low, that it is getting outside the inner circle of staff and press. Some time back I expect that CNN (was it a CNN video?) would have sat on it in order not to offend the White House and lose access.
I have no idea what’s going on there, but he’s not “groping” anything. Whatever is going on there, it’s decidedly nonsexual.
And, yes. I think Bush would do that to Helmut Kohl. I think he’s the kind of guy who insists on man-hugs, and slaps guys on the ass as a show of cameraderie.
He’s marking his territory, Daniel. He’s letting her know that he can violate her personal space — a huge issue in Germany, though he probably can’t be arsed to listen to the protocol experts — by putting his hands on her any time he wants.
IIRC, that is real meaning of “turn the other cheek” — supposedly in the ancient Levant, slapping someone on the (left?) cheek met you were essentially challenging them to a duel, but slapping on the right cheek met you were approaching someone as a friend. So to turn the other cheek was not an act of passivity saying “here, hit me again” but rather forcing the person who was trying to bully you into a dual to approach you as an equal and another person.
Perhaps they should try that in the ME?
Yes! Man Law it is!
And, no, there’s no way in hell he would have done that to Helmut Kohl. Helmut is a person, not a woman. Duh.
BTW (and pardon me for being crass) — after her palling around with Bush while Bush was making a fool out of himself, I was wondering if Merkel’s political career was finished. But how do you think being the victim of a Bush attack will affect things for her?
Someone on another blog said that Germans refer to her as “Bush’s suppository.” So I’m guessing this can only help.
Hah! It probably sounds even nastier in German.
…Yup. If the internets have not misled me, “suppository” translates to, “das zapfchen.”
Daniel, I think groping is the perfect word for it, although you’re correct it’s not sexual.
It is purely a power display, intended to subordinate and demean the recipient.
Bush would not do it to Helmut Kohl. He doesn’t do it to Putin, does he? and Putin’s bald, too, so he’s got to discourage his own natural fetish there.
And if Bush slaps anyone on the ass, it’s also decidedly not in camaraderie.
All this stuff is simply asserting dominance. even as President, his paltry ego needs constant shoring up, and amongst other world leadeers, he is especially vulnerable.
But someone let him know; at last he’s exceeded his Father. while barfing on the Japanese Prime Minister was embarassing, at least it was involuntary. GWB’s behavior is totally voluntary, and is that much more hideously demeaning to America.
That’s because Putin would rip Bush’s spine out of his body and shout ‘Fatality!’ afterwards. Bush is, among his other failings, an obvious physical coward. I doubt he would have the chutzpah to treat Kohl like this (Kohl was 6’4″, Bush is a good five inches shorter and probably 80 pounds or more lighter). And Putin, frankly, probably shouldn’t be touched by anybody that wants to keep the hand; either they’d get back a bloody stump or the dark forces that animate Putin’s soulless body would cause the hand to simply wither in place.
TEH FUNNY!
I always thought the good response to inappropriate touching (or to an offer of a handshake from someone too loathsome to touch) was, “watch where you stick that, you never know when you might need it.”
I do suspect that Putin is physically formidible in a way that few American Presidents are. Clinton was a band geek (size notwithstanding). GHWB was a pilot and a spymaster, but I have no reason to believe he was capable of holding his own in a fight. Nor Reagan, and actor. Jerry Ford played football, so maybe. Nixon, certainly not. He wasn’t a tough guy, he hired tough guys. I don’t know enough about Johnson’s early years. Kennedy distinguished himself leading his crew, but he was a prep school boy whose self-defense preparation was all in basic, IIRC. Ike? West Point, career staff officer, promoted to general in WWII. I’m guessing no. Truman? Not that I know of. FDR? No. That gives us one real possibility, a poor charismatic Texan, in the post-depression Presidents. I don’t know the pre-wars well enough to venture a guess until we get back to TR, who boxed recreationally even as President until an eye injury go him to hang’em up.
I think that you’re making several ideologically tinged assumptions there. We just heard him yesterday greeting Tony Blair with “Yo, Blair,” and referring to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as “Kofi.”
And he did once come out of a meeting with Putin and announced that he’d gazed into Putin’s soul, which is at least as invasive as a tap on the shoulder. A week or so ago, Bush was licking barbecue sauce off his fingers and singing Elvis songs with the president of Japan.
This informality is very central to the way Bush deals with other leaders. Whether they enjoy it or not, and whether it is effective or not, I really have no idea. But I don’t think you can fairly make a sexist thing out of it, looking at the totality of the circumstances.
This is what Bush does. He’s a big believer in this sort of informality. He’s been doing it since he started giving nicknames to the press corps on the campaign jet. It came off well for him with voters in 2000 and 2004, when it made him look personable compared to the more qualified, but stiff Al Gore, and the aloof, patrician John Kerry.
I honestly have no idea whether this sort of informality is good for diplomacy, but Bush’s strength as a “people person” has been much touted as a response to his much-discussed lack of intellectual heft. George Bush knows Angela Merkel a lot better than I do, and I’m not willing to extrapolate any of these meanings from it. He deals with people all the time, and that 10 seconds of video doesn’t change my general assumption that I he has, on the most basic level, a handle on the appropriate boundaries.
I think he’s just horsing around and it may very well be appropriate and it may very well be diplomatically beneficial.
Daniel@NYU said:
I can’t believe I just read this. How could you avoid noticing Merkel’s reaction? She was not happy. How can you even entertain the notion that his action could be “diplomatically beneficial”? When has anything Bush has done with any foreign leaders been “diplomatically beneficial”? In case you haven’t noticed, he’s turned the U.S. into a worldwide laughingstock.
If a manager pulled that nonsense in an American boardroom, HR and legal would have a fit because he just put the company at risk of having a harassment complaint filed. I don’t know whether or not Merkel considers his actions to be sexual harassment. But she is the one to decide–not you.
But I do admire the amazing talent you demonstrate at rationalization. Nice work.
“I think Bush would do that to Helmut Kohl. ”
No, no. He would do other things to Kohl to assert his domination, but probably not this. Maybe push his way through a door first, call him a nickname, or make a snarky joke in a press conference when Kohl was trying to be serious.
The thing he did to Merkel was domination assertion, but it was specifically tailored to a woman. Coming up on someone from behind, interrupting their conversation, startling them – that’s definately a power play, and the kind people do to women, not to men.
You’re saying Bush’s fatuous announcement that he gazed into Putin’s soul is invasive? Hardly. Bush may have been stupid enough to think he connected with Putin, but I can assure you that if Putin wanted to keep his soul private, he most certainly did.
Actually, it’s informality loosely disguising contempt. I’d recomend Maureen Dowd’s column, “I Have a Nickname” on this point.
Yeah, but he Gerald Ford was also Gerald “Most Ironic Entry on Yale’s List of Alumni Who Have Made A Difference” Ford. If we’re betting on postwar presidents I’d put my money on LBJ in a heartbeat. Talk about someone with no notion of propriety or personal space. He ate off other people’s plates at dinner. At least Bush hasn’t done that yet.
Okay, so I just laughed so hard the apple juice I was drinking came out my nose. I swear.
If only Merkel had got up and slapped him. She’d be Chancellor for Life.
OK, I can see that informality is part of his part of his personal style, but that doesn’t mean that informality doesn’t combine with sexism in particularly offensive ways.
When I was a guy, informality did not result in getting my shoulders massaged. The boys and men I knew just didn’t do those sorts of things—not unless they wanted to risk ridicule and/or physical assault. Touching between males was quite limited.
However, after I started living as a woman, I received all kinds of unwanted touch from men: massaging my shoulders, pats on the back, hands placed on my thighs, hands placed on my arms, pats on the head, lewd hand shakes, and the list goes on. I’ve noticed that the closer and less formal my interactions grow with men, the more likely I am to experience various forms of sexual harassment. One of the ways in which I deal with this kind of harassment is to establish distance through the use of cold formality—and it often works quite effectively.
So, in my experience, informality and the tendency to push physical boundaries with women are something that seems to go hand in hand with some men.
Is this an act of dominance? Well, quite a few men are raised to believe that they are better than women on many levels. I think that these feelings often go unspoken and are not consciously though of by many men. After all, it’s 2006 and you aren’t supposed to feel that way. Plus, if you’ve been taught to think of women and girls as “less than” for so long, at a certain point, it can become a kind of background noise that you don’t even notice. You’ve become an adult and you consciously accept that women are your equals, but deep down the old attitudes live on. You interact with a woman and you don’t necessarily think of her as your inferior, but intertwined in your attitudes and behaviors are the echoes of childhood and the prejudices that were drilled into you. You just don’t notice them. Yes, you have a particular way of interacting with women, but you don’t really think of it as domination per se—that’s just how men interact with women.
So, was Bush’s interactions with Merkel an act dominance? Probably. Did he consciously realize this: maybe and maybe not. Regardless of whether it was conscious or not, it was still awfully disrespectful.
Yes, I’m sure that’s going to be “diplomatically beneficial.”
It’s not like Germans don’t have strong boundaries when it comes to personal space, and it’s not like Merkel’s the first female Chancellor Germany’s ever had, or that she’s had to fight against ingrained sexism in the German political system to get where she is.
Yeah, that’s really going to be “diplomatically beneificial.”
:-(
And he did once come out of a meeting with Putin and announced that he’d gazed into Putin’s soul, which is at least as invasive as a tap on the shoulder.
Except that a) it isn’t, and b) Bush did not merely tap Merkel’s shoulder. Do you not understand the difference between talking to/about someone and touching them?
What Bush did is objectively wrong. The only people whose shoulders you rub are very close friends in very informal situations–period. Anything outside those conditions is rude at best, and one would expect the [expletive] president of the United States to understand that.
According to the LA Times, George and Angela spent Thursday hanging out together and they’re, like, new BFFs. She also came over to hang out at the White House a few months back.
Maybe that explains it.
Incidentally, as the LA Times recounts Merkel’s reaction to Bush’s goosing, “She smiled.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-preen17jul17,1,2442410.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true
Daniel, the LA Times got it wrong.
That was no smile. Look at the photo, look at the video. She was grimacing with fists clenched.
And of course they’re hanging out together, they have to put on a good show. They’re at a summit. They’re world leaders. They do stupid photo-ops, even when they can’t stand the other person.
Moreover, it’s likely that Merkel and the other leaders chose to not make a big deal of this. Remember, this was a closed-door meeting at which this happened, not at a public session. They weren’t expecting the tape to get out.
They’re world leaders. They can’t afford to make a big deal over personal invasions of space, but that doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable to invade someone’s personal space.
Yeah, she smiled. to quote Dr. Bitch,
There’s a good reason for for rigid protocol in diplomatic matters. Cultural norms differ widely worldwide (well, DUH), and so internationally accepted modes of formality smooth over any awkwardnesses that might result, on isuues like, oh, say, personal space or inappropraite touching…
Daniel@NYU is either very ignorant of the world outside the US or he is aware of abroad and foreigners but is so typically Bushite don’t-give-a -flying-fuck that he doesn’t realise this.
Alternatively he may just be thick as two short planks..
That would be ‘inappropriate’..
/self-pedant
This isn’t an American thing, either. Shoulder-rubbing between all but one’s closest friends has clear sexual connotations (no, it doesn’t always mean sex, but it’s often interpreted that way). It’s considered inappropriate in nearly all workplaces and most social situations. If someone you don’t know particularly well came up and started rubbing your shoulders, what’s the first thing that would pop into your mind?
I can’t understand how anybody could think this is acceptable. You don’t go around touching people in ways that might make them uncomfortable. It’s just wrong.
He’s back on the freakin’ sauce! It all makes sense!
Div: Bush, nettlesere, feil …
Bush tafser p Angela Merkel, de nordiske piratene organiserer seg, nettlesere sammenlignes, Opera tilbyr brukerne noe nytt og El Reg bringer oss fleire feilmeldinger.
…
What about the fact that Bush did this while Merkel was conversing, HELLOOO disrespect? Male or female, when people are in conversation, let alone in a situation such as this, it is just plain rude to make any sort of unrelated interruption!!! It is disrespectful to all of those conversing, not only Merkel! AND..didn’t his father teach him how to behave in public? You’d think after each incident that Bush makes an ass out of himself, someone would give him a refresher course on how to behave in public. It makes you wonder about his upbringing! This is why Americans are often depicted negatively, he is rude, thus we are rude!!! My mother would have been horrified if any of her children acted with this disregard for others
They were hanging out together before the conference last Thursday, and they evidently are good buds now. Bush couldn’t be happier about Merkel’s conservatives ousting Schroeder who was a pain in Bush’s ass. These two are definitely kindred spirits.
I don’t know how to characterize the relationship between Bush and Merkel. I don’t know what kinds of pranks heads of state play on each other. I think Bush is probably in a better position than any of us to determine what is appropriate given all the facts.
I know Bush’s policies are unpopular abroad, and, for that matter, at home. I am not a blind Bushite unable to grasp that fact. But Bush’s personal style has always been a strong point for him.
Bush doesn’t strike me as a complete social weirdo. People seem to like him personally, and he’s managed to get a long way on what is purported to be charm. There’s a lot of stuff that can be said about Bush, but I simply don’t think it’s accurate to suggest that the guy is clueless about how to behave in public.
.
See, Daniel, I do. I think that over the years, Bush has gotten away with behavior that would get you or me in a lot of hot water, because of his name and his money. When someone can buy and sell you, and is the President’s son, who calls them on this stuff?
It’s like laughing at your boss’s joke. Your boss can make your life really miserable, so you laugh, even if the joke isn’t that funny, even if you’ve heard it before, even if it wasn’t funny yesterday when ze told it, and it won’t be tomorrow either.
The proprietors of this blog and i are kindred spirits, but i’m pretty sure that if i were to out of the blue give one of them a shoulder-rub in the middle of, say, a political convention, i’d be ridiculously out of line. Though admittedly i didn’t “hang out” with any of them last Thursday, so maybe that makes all the difference. Or something.
Spin, little monkey, spin!
Cripes, Daniel. Tell you what. You walk up behind one of your friendly-but-not-close acquaintances while she’s engrossed in conversation with someone else on a serious matter and do a drive-by neck rub. See how much that “kindred spirits” thing helps you out when she decks you.
Or better, go back and look at the pictures. SHE DID NOT LIKE IT. It was an invasion of her space and completely inappropriate.
Yeah, like remember how F.D.R. used to wear a hand buzzer when he shook Churchill’s hand? Or that one time when Clinton short-sheeted Yasser Arafat’s bed at Camp David?
raging red, LMAO
I don’t know what kinds of pranks heads of state play on each other. I think Bush is probably in a better position than any of us to determine what is appropriate given all the facts.
And Merkel, who shrugged Bush off and clearly looked irritated by his behavior, is probably in an even better position to determine what’s appropriate.
Your use of the word “prank” says a lot about your bias. Rubbing someone’s shoulders is not a “prank.” And even if, by some stretch of imagination, it were–which it isn’t–then it’s not something you should be pulling AT A G8 SUMMIT.
There are at least two sides to every story and most of the time, neither of them is true.
Maybe she likes him, maybe she doesn’t. Maybe she just smiles and nods because he’s the president of the United States.
Maybe George W. Bush is a blast to be around and the life of every party. Maybe he doesn’t floss and has shit stuck in his teeth and horrible breath, and people avoid eye contact with him in hopes that he won’t corner them and try to start a conversation.
You guys are pretty certain of what you saw in that ten-second, no-sound video. I’m less sure. Maybe Merkel started laughing right after that cuts off. Maybe she turned around and slapped Bush across the face.
Maybe later she wept about it. Maybe she spent hours in the shower that night trying to wash off the shame and corruption.
Maybe it wasn’t a big deal.
I don’t really know. I think it falls well short of sexual harassment, and even if it was unwelcome it’s not that big a deal.
Oh, you’re gonna be a living nightmare for HR.
I don’t initiate touching. I come from a part of the country where people greet each other with a firm handshake and that’s it.
Bush’s frat-house, everyone’s-my-pal style isn’t mine. He reminds me of a dog you can’t train to stay off the furniture, as it happens.
But when i moved north I got used to being hugged by men and kissed by women I barely know. (insert relevant “Seinfeld” quote).
It’s not some kind of master plan to subjugate everybody. Guys whho behave like that are either fun to be around or really annoying, depending on how respondent they are to social cues and other things.
Someone on another forum pointed out that Bush Snr, when (re?)-introduced to Britain’s late Queen Mother as she visited the White House, gave her a firm Episcopalian buss on the mouth, much to her and the British entourage’s complete stupefaction. She thereafter always referred to him as “that horrible little man”, but I bet she nonetheless smiled graciously for the cameras.
Like father, like son.
Protocol matters because different cultures have different mores, and being all informal bonhomie as appropriate for your own culture is fraught with landmines when interacting with people from other cultures. Heads of State are expected to know this, not just ignore it because America’s the best or whatever their convoluted rationalisation is.
I guess all you bloggers haven’t heard. All this relates to Bush’s new foreign policy. It’s his “Hands On” diplomacy. For Bush it beats the hell out of the “Shuttle Diplomacy” of the past.