The Guardian
The half-life of Julia on Twitter
The #Julia meme has got Republicans angry at the 'patronising' Obama campaign. It's also got them talking gender: gotcha!
By Ana Marie Cox
The invention of "Julia", on first glance, seems like a low point in a campaign season that's already seen debates flare up over so many imaginary issues you'd think there was a shortage of real ones. Among the subjects that exist only the minds of journalists and would-be nominees: moon colonies, death panels, proper dog transport (and recipes), alligator-filled moats, the candidacies of Sarah Palin and Chris Christie, and, of course, Mitt Romney's foreign policy.
On Twitter, Julia's life events have taken on life of their own, with conservatives offering up her struggles with rationed care, finding a job, gas prices and, more seriously, the fact that in #Julia's reality, Obama gets to be president for 67 years. Heated discussion over the impact of politics on the life of an imaginary person is something I thought we'd lose with the departure of Newt Gingrich from the race. Alt-histories are supposed to be more his thing. (In a Gingrich presidency, #Julia would have won the civil war.)
As silly as it is, even baiting the Republicans into mocking the Julia feint is a form of engaging them on the gender issue. Whether or not you believe Romney's policies are bad for women is an ideological issue, but the Obama campaign can point to the real consequences those policies have. The character is imaginary; the policies aren't.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/03/half-life-julia-twitter
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