Unwrapping the Beef: A Very Brief History of Marianne Williamson Fighting With Erica Jong

By Ashley Reese  |  September 6, 2019 | 4:05pm
NewsPolitics
Unwrapping the Beef: A Very Brief History of Marianne Williamson Fighting With Erica Jong
Image:Getty

Marianne Williamson is a presidential candidate who believes in the power of prayer, meditation, visualization, and…. tattling to your mother if you write something mean about her. According to writer Molly Jong-Fast, Williamson sent Twitter direct messages to Jong-Fast’s mother, feminist author Erica Jong, to complain about her after she published an article in which she referred to Williamson (and Tulsi Gabbard) as “extreme, low-polling voices” in the Democratic primary.

While some media outlets are reporting that Williamson’s DMs are the result of Jong-Fast criticizing her for encouraging “visualization” to turn away Hurricane Dorian, it seems as if the catalyst was somehow even pettier: After Jong-Fast promoted her article on Twitter, her mother replied and called Williamson (and Tulsi Gabbard) “weird.”

Though this wasn’t Jong-Fast’s first time publicly deriding Williamson’s presidential campaign, apparently a nerve was struck. On Thursday, Jong-Fast tweeted photos of Williamson’s messages to her mother, which started off with Williamson saying, “Sorry to see you’d call me ‘weird,’ Erica.”

Williamson continues: “I understand your daughter is young and doesn’t know better but given your own career and the fact that we’ve met, I would have thought you’d at least be open to a non-corporate political voice in the mix.” (Jong-Fast is 41-years-old.)

According to an interview Jong-Fast gave to AM2DM Friday morning, Jong hardly recalls meeting Williamson. Jong-Fast said, “My mom came over for lunch and she was like, ‘You know, Marianne Williamson wrote me and… you know, I don’t remember meeting her, but I guess I did, and she’s not happy…”

As evidenced by the photos, Williamson has much more to say about this ordeal than Jong. Not unlike a man who can’t quite get a hint, Williamson clearly isn’t afraid of a double, triple, or quadruple text. That… is power.

Jong-Fast appears to be having fun with the weirdness, sharing photos on Instagram of her mother telling her about the Williamson debacle and even a few wacky photoshops.

We may have reached peak 2019 bullshit in our political discourse, folks. Savor it while you can.

 
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