On his May 8th
show, Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the Met Gala’s theme of “Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”.
Please watch the clip. He joked
about the celebrities’ interpretations of the theme, and compared their
outlandish outfits to his understanding of Catholic fashion as demonstrated by
a photo of “Sister Mary Frances O’Brien”.
The nun in the photo, however, is actually Sr. Patricia Pompa, the
real-life principal at my alma mater, Villa Walsh Academy. The Jimmy Kimmel clip
went viral amongst my former classmates and fellow alumnae. Sr. Pat was on Jimmy Kimmel! Nothing had spread that fast since the
time Sr. Mary DeAngelis got a photo with Bruce Springsteen (“Big Brucey” as she
called him). The Villa girls I
know either found the whole thing hilarious or suffered from brief bouts of
nun-induced post-traumatic stress.
But other people (only
men, that I noticed) lamented the injustice done to Sr. Pat and sought to
defend her sacred honor. In the
Wall Street Journal on Monday, Bill McGurn, father of three Villa girls and
former speechwriter for George W. Bush, wrote a column introducing “Jimmy
Kimmel’s nun” as a loving woman whose “entire life has been about
self-sacrifice.” In describing her
service to the school, he paints her with a halo.
Mr. McGurn implies that
Jimmy Kimmel only saw the habit when he held up Sr. Pat’s photo, but I wonder
if he himself has fallen into the same trap. When we synonymize one’s clothing
with one’s level of virtue, we run into a risk the Catholic Church should well
know—the risk of assuming complete goodness and overlooking true failings.
Behind the habit is a human, not a saint.
She has not “sacrificed” her life, but rather chose this life for
herself. A subtle distinction, but
an important one. She is not a
victim. She is not a damsel in
distress.
But Sr. Pat’s fifteen
minutes of fame were not yet up.
Later in the week, Mr. McGurn appeared on Fox & Friends to be
interviewed by Brian Kilmeade. I
believe Mr. McGurn when he says he does not mean to demonize Jimmy Kimmel, but
I think it’s a shame he didn’t foresee Fox News taking such an angle with “JIMMY KIMMEL USES NUN TO JOKE ABOUT
MET GALA” emblazoned at the bottom of the screen. While the segment mostly was spent reiterating the sentiments
in the article, one moment struck me as exceedingly disingenuous. Shaking his head in disgust, Mr.
Kilmeade asks, “in the #MeToo movement, should we really be ridiculing somebody
about how they look?” While not
only betraying a complete misunderstanding of #MeToo, Mr. Kilmeade asserts a
distaste that reeks of hypocrisy.
We can argue whether Jimmy Kimmel was ridiculing Sr. Pat’s looks or if he was
drawing a humorous comparison between the Met Gala and what most people
recognize as Catholic fashion (in other words, making a joke, or rather, doing a thing that comedians do). But
if we are going to exhibit disgust at the superficial treatment of women, let’s
hold that up as a standard across the board. Somehow I doubt Mr. Kilmeade has expressed a fraction of
that outrage in reaction to egregious behavior toward women by President Trump
or by men at his own network. But
then I guess those women weren’t wearing habits. Maybe they deserved it.
I know
and admire Mr. McGurn and his family, and I have no doubt he had good
intentions in writing this piece.
But as one of those capable and confident women churned out by Villa
Walsh, I feel compelled to point out why I find this treatment
problematic. Was Sr. Pat consulted
before she was used as an example of Christian virtue and as a weapon of Fox
News? It seems not. If I had to guess, I’d imagine the nuns
of Villa Walsh got a kick out of the Jimmy Kimmel bit. After all, they too are human beings
with senses of humor. They even poke fun at themselves sometimes. All I ask is
that we recognize the human nature in all people—no matter their station, no
matter their clothing—and hold them to the same standards of decency.
