mita

I love that quote from Ainsley below. As a member of the “minority”, I completely understand that feeling of humiliation when white men try to “protect” us & declare to the world that “we” are equal to “them” (Why? Wasn’t I before? Am I not a human being, as opposed to a particular sex/race/sexual orientation?).

Anyway that quote is one reason why she is possibly my favorite TV character of all time (I even named my laptop after her). Other reasons are written below, by the person from whom I reblogged this.

I’ve been thinking of her a bit, since I’ve been watching The Wire & feeling that Tommy Carcetti may be the best written politician character since Ainsley Hayes (& Stephen Colbert —- if you consider him to be a character!).

notabadday:

The West Wing characters: Ainsley Hayes
“It’s humiliating. A new amendment we vote on declaring that I am equal under the law to a man, I am mortified to discover there’s reason to believe I wasn’t before. I am a citizen of this country, I am not a special subset in need of your protection. I do not have to have my rights handed down to me by a bunch of old, white, men. The same Article 14 that protects you, protects me, and I went to law school just to make sure.”

Of all the non-regulars, I think Ainsley must be just about the cream of the crop. Everybody loves Ainsley, no? For a character with barely more than ten episodes in the entire series, Ainsley Hayes certainly made her mark in this White House. The Republican among Democrats, the woman among men, Ainsley was the flaxen-haired, feisty Southerner who provided a welcome conflict in the healthy staff discussions, of which there were plenty.

Of all the female characters within the show, while Donna and CJ were feminist forces characteristically, Ainsley was the most direct in her empowerment of the sisterhood. In 17 People we see her render Sam speechless over the equal rights amendment, to which she is opposed. My favourite moment, however, is in response to what we might now regard as “slut shaming”. When one of the staffers, Celia, suggests that Ainsley willingly lets her sexuality diminish her power, Ainsley confronts Celia with lipstick feminism. She argues that “nonsense issues distract attention away from real issues”, undermining honest-to-God sexual harassment, and that it is perfectly acceptable that she enjoys being teased by the boys, and being “on the team”. She is such a force, with such autonomy and confidence, that I can’t do anything but adore her.

While I don’t agree with all of her politics, Ainsley had such an enjoyable energy that I loved every second of her on-screen. I only wish that we could have seen her relationships with characters including Sam, Donna, Leo and Josh develop a little more. She provided such an interesting, alternative angle in a lot of the discussions; it would have been wonderful to see more of that!