Last week, Jenni Carlson wrote an odd column in the Oklahoman about the common stereotype that girls who play softball are"” newsflash! "” occasionally lesbians. The column was apparently spurred by the reaction people had to a picture (see above) that appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The picture in question was an old, dated photograph of Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan playing some recreational softball....not a picture of Jenni Carlson playing softball.
After the photo published, newspaper columnists, bloggers and political commentators from around the country questioned why the WSJ selected such an odd photo. Many of them claimed the Journal may have used the photo to subtly imply that Kagan is a lesbian. One of those people was Ryan Chittum with the Columbia Journalism Review. Here's what he wrote.