The spontaneous implosion of Sara Lacy’s Zuckerberg interview at SXSW (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxZ6-O5R1zs) is now buried in the sands of time. Such is the nature tech gossip. But I’ve found its denouement unsatisfying. She handled it with dignity and arrogance, the two most important traits a high-profile journalist can have. She went about her business with a “what was that all about” shrug, showing, above all, that being a woman in the tech, media, and tech media for a decade will cause a few calluses to form. Even when she was on stage the vitriol hurled at her didn’t seem to penetrate. In fact, she reminded me of another high-profile woman who’s broadly disliked, but often disliked with a vehemence that borders on the pathological. There are lots of good reasons not to like Hillary Clinton, but can any of them account for the fanatical tenor of the attacks leveled against her in the blogosphere?
What is interesting about the Lacy interview is the way the crowd pounced on her. They spotted vulnerability and lunged with every intention of injuring her (career). I think “what if she’d been a man” hypotheticals are inane and simplistic, but this is a case that might warrant one. What if she’d been a man? What if she’d been Malcolm Galdwell? I don’t think the crowd would have been so ruthless; I don’t think they’d have exhibited the same eagerness to draw blood. It’s not veiled resentment of women who break the glass ceiling, it’s something more base and animalistic. There is some sinister instinct buried in our collective id. We savor the suffering of successful women and seek, as a reflex, to promote it when we get the chance. Men and women both have it. I have it.
I saw Michael Clayton recently. For me, the most resonant scene, the scene that really stuck with me, was Clayton’s confrontation of the female villain in the big finale. I relished that scene, when she collapsed under the weight of realizing her undoing. Too much, I think. I wouldn’t have felt the same way if she’d been another generic white male suit-villain.
Maybe I’m being intellectually lazy about this, dismissing it as something we needn’t be more rigorous in understanding because it resides in our unknowable subconscious. Sill, I’m convinced it operates outside of the realm of rational thought. As evidence, I’ll offer what I think must be the best evidence of the absence of reason: the presence of sex. “Sarah Lacy pictures” is right up there with “Sarah Lacy wikipedia” among the top five Google search term groups to include her name. Type “Sarah Lacy Businessweek” (her employer) and Google returns 20,700 hits. “Hate Sarah Lacy”: 24,100. “Hot Sarah Lacy”: 101,000.
