5-30-88 . . . President [Ronald] Reagan is in Moscow to meet with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, ostensibly to sign an arms-control treaty, but really to reap the glory of their respective citizens. Naturally, the media have made it into a spectacle. Each evening, on the news, there are reports about the men, the women, and the Russian people. “The women” are Nancy Reagan and Raisa Gorbachev, who have been visiting art museums and other attractions while their husbands do the work of state. It’s sickening to see them do these trivial things, for it sends a message to the children of the world that men do important things and women do frivolous things—that women are mere appendages of their husbands and exist for their pleasure and accompaniment only. Nancy Reagan has assiduously cultivated this image; she exults in her role as wife and helper. Raisa Gorbachev, on the other hand, is highly educated, but still appears to be the loyal, loving wife. That, too, sends a bad signal. It tells children that even well-educated, highly motivated women must play second fiddle to their husbands.