Linguist Mark Liberman lays into Kathleen Parker for calling Obama "our first female president":
What's her evidence for this lack of "rhetorical-testosterone"? Along with a lot of vague stuff about how Obama is "a chatterbox" who shares with "Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton" (!) the ability to "assume feminine communication styles effectively", the column includes exactly one relevant fact:
Obama's [oil crisis:] speech featured 13 percent passive-voice constructions, the highest level measured...
Published on July 01, 2010 14:19