A man's 1963 answer to whether or not a woman would make a good president rings true today

It's 2020 and our presidential race was between an old white dude and another old white dude. That glass ceiling is still hovering over our heads. It might be cracked, but it hasn't been shattered yet. A blast from the past photo went viral for showing us some of the attitudes that are impeded in the foundation of that glass ceiling – and one skinny little crack from an unlikely source.
Twitter user @natepentz posted a photo of a 1763 Minneapolis Star Tribune article in which readers were asked, "Would a woman be a good president?"
Of the five respondents, four (including two women) gave a firm "no," backed up by whatever weird logic they used to justify their sexism. "No. Today their mind is one way and the next day, it changes," said Frank Kampa. "No. A man is more responsible. Women have enough problems without being president," said Maureen Mellum.
But the lone "why not" has been getting a lot of attention now, 57 years later. Vern Hause's answer was simple, ""She couldn't do any worse than some we've had."
The response went viral, and Hause got praise for being a low-key feminist at a time when "The Future is Female" t-shirts didn't exist.
Other Twitter users thought Hause's response was kind of lame – that he had no faith in the government, but no faith in women either.
Hause's response wasn't the only response to grab attention. Some people commented on how weird Mr. and Mrs. Romanowski's responses were. Mr. Romanowski answered, "No. I don't have much faith in women to let them run the country."
Mrs. Romanowski's answer was worse, and also kinda hinted that there might be something going on in her marriage. "No. A woman is too likely to give in. They might not stand their ground when they should," Mrs. Romanowski, who apparently doesn't have a first name of her own, said. Maybe she was speaking out of her own experience? Although, 1963 might have been before women were allowed to have opinions.
But as far as we've come since 1963, some Twitter users pointed out that not much has changed. In some ways, these responses from 1963 could be given now, although the sexism might be less overt.
While newspapers don't really go around asking weird questions like this anymore, in some ways, society is still asking itself that question. At least now we have plenty of people who will boldly answer, "Why is this even a question???"
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.