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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Sexist Attacks On Women For Saying The Same Thing As Men
Source: Media Matters
State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki and her deputy, Marie Harf, have spent the week being attacked by right-wing media. They have been TARGETS of particularly harsh, personal attacks, using language that demeans both women and is almost never used to describe men in similar high-profile positions, regardless of what they say.
On February 19, the Daily Caller equated Psaki to a game where players take turns kicking a bead-filled ball around, when it was announced she has been tapped by President Obama to be the White House Communications Director: "Hacky Psaki: Obama Spokeslady Kicked Back To WH After Stint At State Dept."
The National Review's Ian Tuttle called the two women an incapable "hapless duo" with a "Lucy and Ethel routine" (Harf is blonde, Psaki a red head) who were trying to create a version of the comedy film Legally Blonde at the US Department of State. In a separate piece, the conservative journal of record's Kevin Williamson called Harf "cretinous" and a "misfit who plays Messy Marvin to Jen Psaki's feckless Pippi Longstocking."
It's one thing to disagree with and criticize a strategy or policy, it's another to belittle and undermine a person's intelligence and legitimacy by resorting to misogynist attacks.
Read more: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/02/22/the-sexist-attacks-on-women-for-saying-the-same/202609
(Reposted per OKNancy's instructions.)
I have actively opposed sexism and misogyny since the early seventies. Not much has changed, and far too many cry "misandry!" when feminists attempt to address this blight on our species. Misogyny--and myriad other forms of abuse--damages our entire species.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)I hope this gets lots of exposure.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)marym625
(17,997 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)Would love to see this discussion get to and stay on Greatest Threads!
marym625
(17,997 posts)Wish I could rec again but we cannot do that.
This is the same old same old bullshit crap we've been taking for decades. It's the misogynists of today just saying, "women should be seen and not heard."
Really so tired of it. Over and over and over ad nauseum, ad infinitum, ad mortem.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)or any other women who do not fit the "Stepford Wives" mold of acceptable feminine behavior?
HRC was attacked viciously during the Clinton presidency because she was not Mamie Eisenhower. Michelle Obama has suffered from the same vicious attacks. Nothing has changed.
If Sarah Palin, Joni Ernst, Michelle Bachmann and other politically involved GOP women were Democrats they would also suffer the same attacks for their own visibility and actions.
Misogyny, overt racism, hatred for non-heterosexual behavior, attacking workers, all of these behaviors are an essential part of the mythical America that the GOP and the Tea Party Taliban want to bring back.
Nice post
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I'm seeing an increase in anti-Hillary rhetoric. In some instances, I have to wonder if it's thinly veiled misogyny.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)in some cases it is right in the open. If HRC was named Jeb Clinton she/he would be praised as a brilliant lawyer and good, not great public speaker. Not a perfect progressive but a good potential candidate for President.
Maybe she should bake some cookies and show she is a domestic woman at heart with no ambitions outside the home.
From a male who likes smart women.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)is my (lame) attempt to avoid an alert. I have learned from past experience that some herein are "sensitive" to any discussion of sexism and misogyny. In addition to hijacking pertinent threads, a few among us will alert on those of us who attempt to address sexism and/or misogyny.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)the question for me though has always been how does one deny rights to anyone without realizing that the denial is an attack against all?
How do I attack women when I was born of a woman? How do I devalue a fellow human without also devaluing myself? I am certain that someone could put this better but we really are all in this world together.
Perhaps Pastor Neimoller said it best when he said "first they came for the socialists..."
Could also be a bit of insecurity working here. My experience has been that insecure people are generally quick to put others down.
Last, ignoring sexism and misogyny will not make it go away. Like any form of hate, it has to be named and confronted whenever it arises.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)Like any form of hate, it has to be named and confronted whenever it arises.
And, more of us are so doing.
dissentient
(861 posts)Because that seems to be the topic everyone wants to talk about right now.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I believe the corporate megalomaniacs have usurped our media, our politics AND our global economy. I believe voters are given the two candidates the corporate megs believe are most likely to fulfill their agenda(s). I will vote for the Democratic candidate, but I am under no illusions about who is really calling the shots.
dissentient
(861 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)documentary that targets the BFEE in some of the major tragic events of the past sixty-plus years. There are a number of points made in this documentary that I find irrefutable, most having to do with Poopy Poppy Bush, and his minions.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)Last edited Wed Feb 25, 2015, 10:28 AM - Edit history (1)
In my years in the corporate milieu, I've had men in positions of authority denigrate my intellect, and subject me to all kinds of ignominious behaviors, including sexual harassment and wrongful termination. I want our younglings to have a better experience, devoid of sexism and the myriad other isms promoted by our patriarchal socio-cultural precepts.
riqster
(13,986 posts)pnwmom
(108,980 posts)They've been happening right here, and even upheld by juries.
Like this recent example, in a thread discussing whether Hillary was qualified to be President.
"She hasn't 'earned' squat. But she did sleep with the guy who got a BJ in the Oval Office."
(And when would a man who had a law degree from Yale and experience as a Senator and Secretary of State ever be considered to be under-qualified as President? Much less by other members of his party?)
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)this OP. I did a search with the key word "sexism" and the most recent OP I found was dated 2013!
I left DU for a while during the first barrage of anti-Hillary attacks. I fully anticipate a similar barrage this go round.
And, I couldn't agree more about the unmitigated gall of those who characterize Hillary as "under-qualified." Any time someone resorts to such personal attacks, it says more about the attacker, doesn't it?
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)both a post-racist and a post-sexist country.
I wrote on another post that many years ago I read "A Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood. At the time I thought her dystopian view of the future was somewhat dark and unrealistic. Little did I know that she was quite accurate in her portrayal of 21st Century America.
Back to the Future with a scary, racist, sexist vengeance we go. A future where increasing numbers of right wingers seem to be getting more ignorant about science, reproductive biology, (thanks Todd Akin), and many other things. I swear that the GOP is trying to go back to pre-Enlightenment times when faith substituted for science.
Someone tell me I am wrong. Please.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I read "A Handmaid's Tale," and I still clench my teeth when I think about it.
alp227
(32,034 posts)it's Obamacare. How else can KYnect be popular in red state Kentucky?
Or how people don't like "liberals" but support left wing positions on social security and such?
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Feminists didn't seem to jump to Christine O'Donnell's defense when the media accused her of being a "witch," or when people making goofy photoshopped photos of Palin holding a gun in a bikini. Do we make photoshopped pictures of male candidates wearing swimsuits holding a gun in a sexual pose?
When it comes to politics, people look for any way they can to attack the other side...even if the attack is below the belt. Female politicians from both parties are going to face more personal insults and attacks than male candidates. It's something that needs more progress. The media needs that progress. So does SNL and Comedy Central where some have made a living on attacking Republican women in ways they would never attack a male politician of either party.
Politics in this country is so incredibly ugly with a very negative and angry tone. That's why half the country doesn't even bother voting. It's why so few women even bother to run for public office. Who wants to have themselves and their family dragged through the mud like that? You got to be out of your mind. Every little mistake you made in life will be flung out in the open.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)hopemountain
(3,919 posts)the same misogynistic attacks also prevail in the halls of higher learning, science, research, education, religion, the arts, and business.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)harassment, physical abuse, and pernicious misogyny (usually,whenever a man feels threatened by me). I grew up with an alcoholic, abusive father, and have twice married dishonest, unfaithful men. In graduate school, a professor I thought was a friend attempted to steal my theory on power imbalance. Most of my male supervisors have been inappropriate in some sexist manner.
I hope our younglings can effect a sea change in the patriarchy that underpins these and other damaging behaviors.
hopemountain
(3,919 posts)~ as a survivor of all of those things in one form or the other along with racism, it is possible to reclaim our personal power. being brought up with a misogynist & alcoholic father can really "f" with one's thinking process to survive any abuse or trauma. it is possible to hit the reset button. my best to you chervilant (ant on the chervil ).
chervilant
(8,267 posts)to do advocacy for survivors of relationship violence for more than thirty years. I feel blessed each time a survivor entrusts me with their history. Such courage and strength among survivors!
BainsBane
(53,035 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)I left DU for a while during the worst of the sexism and misogyny directed towards Hillary and anyone who supported her. I fully expect the same this go round.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)I can see why they would be unhappy, but the wide claims of misogyny seem overstated in some the examples from the article.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Sometimes I'm too sexismed out to say much. I've been seeing it, yelling about it and on the short end of it since I was little.....been held down, back and under on account of it, just as every woman here.
sick of the bullshit.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I just haven't got the energy to wade through the sexists and misogynists.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)OK, I lied. Not a dollop.
A truckload.
Heh!
chervilant
(8,267 posts)and asked a man who appeared to be my age to dance. Basically, he blew me off. Later, I saw him dancing with a woman who appeared young enough to be his daughter.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Glad I'm not as pining for love like in days gone by!
chervilant
(8,267 posts)I tell my friends I am in the Crone stage of life, and have no need to find an intimate partner.
Besides, I love having my home all to myself, and getting to cook whatever I want. And, stay up until all hours watching documentaries. And feeding the birds outside my kitchen window. And reading in bed. And taking long hikes.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)Is this what is being called GamerGate?