Don’t Know Much about Herstory

Don’t Know Much about Herstory

Perhaps some of our loyal readers are wondering to themselves: What the heck is “herstory,” anyway? To put it pithily, as far as we can tell, “herstory” is to history what Mr. T is to acting. Or what Kenny G is to music. Or what Kenny G is to acting, for that matter.

In short, “herstory” is the brand of politicized claptrap favored by radical dolts too dim to realize that the word “history” has no linguistic relation to the pronoun “his.”

But you needn’t take our word for it. The practitioners of herstoriography over at the National Black Herstory Task Force, Inc. offer their own description of their mission on their “website”:

Respectfully, we note that in order to accurately tell our stories, we must include the relationships shared with our brothers and allies.

To which we, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” respond: Well, at least they’re respectful about all of this. Still, we aren’t terribly impressed by the fact that our dedicated herstorians offer up a whopper of a split infinitive in this sentence. Perhaps grammar is patriarchal? We’ll have to ask our brothers and allies.

Now, let us make it crystal clear that we, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” haven’t any qualms with the studying of African and African-American history. And, naturally enough, such history should include the discussion of both men and women. Even stocky women named Gwen.

But those dedicated to “chronicling and celebrating herstory,” such as our friends at the National Black Herstory Task Force, Inc., make us wonder. As far as we can tell, such “herstory” is often bent on establishing orthodox views on topics, and serves as a pseudo-intellectual exercise in political grievance mongering.

Don’t buy our contention that “herstory” is often a bit fluffier than its shopworn, patriarchal cousin history? Can’t imagine that contemporary professors would create academic fiefdoms dedicated to promoting student self-esteem instead of intellectual rigor? Don’t believe that the sky is blue?

You don’t have to. Just take a gander at the “recommended reading” over at the National Black Herstory Task Force, Inc.’s “website.”

Among the three tomes warmly endorsed is one Lee Hart Merrick’s White Bird: The Private Papers of a Reverse Oreo.

The folks at the National Black Herstory Task Force, Inc. inform us that this hefty volume is a “page-turner” that “is offered as a nonprofit, nonfiction story of a small-town upstate New York WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant)….”

Well, gee: We’re glad that our allies at the Task Force, Inc. have explained to us what a WASP is. Now if they could only get around to informing us about the mysteries behind other nettlesome abbreviations, such as UN and USA. And what the heck is EU?

We’re also glad to see that Ms. Merrick considers her memoir “nonprofit.” At least she isn’t sufficiently unhinged to think her “Reverse Oreo” tale is going to show up on the New York Times’s best-seller list.

Frankly, though, we think that Ms. Merrick is something of a one trick pony. The book she wrote right before she began the painstaking work behind The Private Papers of a Reverse Oreo is White Cream: The Public Papers of an Oreo with Double-Stuff.