Obama says sexism could lead voters to back Trump over Clinton

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post

By Greg Jaffe September 18 at 9:42 PM

President Obama, speaking at an event Sunday in New York City, said that a bias against powerful women could hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with voters in November.

“There’s a reason why we haven’t had a woman president,” Obama said at the fundraiser for Clinton. “We as a society still grapple with what it means to see powerful women and it still troubles us in a lot of ways, unfairly.”

In his brief remarks, Obama touted his administration’s achievements over the past eight years, praised Clinton and blasted Republican nominee Donald Trump as unfit to be president as he has repeatedly in recent weeks. His remarks about Americans' reluctance to support a powerful woman were among his strongest on the subject and come amid polls showing that the race is tightening.

“This should not be a close election but it will be, and the reason it will be is not because of Hillary’s flaws,” he said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/18/obama-says-sexism-could-lead-voters-to-back-trump-over-clinton/?wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

[iandhr]

1. Yup absolutely.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. Yes. Sexism is always relegated to the back of the bus,

But it is more widespread and more ingrained than racism. It's also less dramatic, especially since femicide is always blamed on a lone man driven crazy (unspoken: by feminine wiles).

I have the same fear that sexism, which almost always goes unchallenged and operates so subconsciously, could blind too many voters.
I'd bet many third party voters are motivated at least partially, by deep streams of sexism.

[niyad]

4. exactly. yet, even on this board, the rampant and virulent sexism directed against HRC is

denied by way too many.

[Kathy M]

5. Agree .

[smirkymonkey]

12. +1000

Agree completely!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. So do I! Seriously,

I know it's my main focus of rants, and sometimes my radar for sexism may be too fine-tuned.....
But there's another symptom of sexism that I see, and that I know I'm not overemphasizing. But it is subtle.
It's a knee-jerk, automatic reflex where lots of us distrust or dismiss women's perspectives.


Oh well, i could blather on about it, but I'm falling asleep!

[niyad]

3. k and r for using the taboo word "sexism"

[Midnight Writer]

6. I think this is especially true of older folks (like myself)

Many of my contemporaries (including many women) grew up in a sexist world and find it quite natural. There are men's roles and women's roles, set by God and tradition. Treating women as "the weaker sex" is so common that it goes unnoticed. And some folk truly bristle when they are presented with a women in a position of power.

[malchickiwick]

7. I think sexism is a big reason many millenials are refusing to jump aboard.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but I find many millennials to be more sexist than my generation, although they simultaneously seem more accepting of ethnic/cultural/sexual-identity diversity. Is the horrible misogyny that can be found on the Internets responsible for this??

For the record, this is just me speaking, a Gen-Xer (1968) with three millennial kids -- 2 daughters and a son who are definitely NOT sexist!! -- all in their early 20s.

[Coolie_J]

9. Did you know...

...that there has been a poll that showed that Millennial men were more sexist than older generations? That's ironic to me. Here's the link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/11822387/Millennial-men-are-more-sexist-than-their-middle-aged-fathers.html

[Odin2005]

21. I remember reading an article saying that Millennial men ARE more sexist.

At least with regards to women in STEM fields and in leadership.

And yeah, the internet is awash with sexist BS because techies (and teenagers with pretensions of being techies) in particular are often raging misogynists and think "feeeeemales" cannot into logic and think they are owed sex.

[mahina]

8. Clearly. It had to be said.

[Chico Man]

10. The sexism on Twitter is unbelievable

Including folks photoshopping Hillary to make her look slightly older and wrinkled. So bad.

[EL34x4]

11. The cover of last week's National Enquirer

Had Hillary Clinton looking like an 85-year old zombie from The Walking Dead.

The photoshopping was so over the top, I couldn't help but laugh.

[ColemanMaskell]

13. Yup. Patriarchy/Misogyny is part of the Trump brand

Here is a link to an article "Who Supports Trump and Why"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/understanding-trump_b_11144938.html

The article at the above link talks about different worldviews "The Nurturant Parent family (progressive) and the Strict Father family (conservative)."

Saw an online video interviewing a few of Trump's supporters outside a rally, and one of them said straight out that he wouldn't vote for a woman.

This article is more fun, though:"A neuroscientist explains what may be wrong with Trump supporters’ brains"
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/a-neuroscientist-explains-what-may-be-wrong-with-trump-supporters-brains/

[TomCADem]

15. Donald Trump: “All of the men, we’re petrified to speak to women anymore”

Donald Trump speaking out about a man's right to yell at a woman, as well as Roger Ailes right to seek some companionship.

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/10/11650098/donald-trump-men-petrified-hillary-clinton-woman-card-red-pill

Last month, Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of "playing the woman card." This suggests that she's only polling well because she's a woman, or because she's duping "politically correct" liberals with a gender equality guilt trip.

Trump is wrong on the polling and wrong on the gender politics. But over the weekend, he doubled down on his wrong idea in the most Trump way possible — suggesting that men, not women, are really the oppressed ones.

* * *
"If [Clinton] didn't play the women's card, she would have no chance, I mean zero, of winning," Trump said. "She's playing the women's card. She's going — " [here Trump's voice drips with sarcasm] "'Did you hear that Donald Trump raised his voice while speaking to a woman?' Oh, I'm sorry!"

And then: "I mean. All of the men, we're petrified to speak to women anymore. We may raise our voice. You know what? The women get it better than we do, folks. They get it better than we do. If she didn't play that card, she has nothing."

[MADem]

16. So Donald is petrified? One more reason why he's not qualified for the job! LOL! nt

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

23. Trump is always in opposition of the truth

Just negate every thing Trump says if you want to know what it true. I don't think he has said a single true statement this whole campaign. He'd probably lie able what he ate for lunch if he was asked about it.

[mdbl]

17. Other than the man-boy types, can't see sexism really being an issue

Trump isn't really appealing to many others - unless you are pretending to like him so he doesn't fire you.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

22. I think sexism is a huge issue

and, as someone else also mentioned, many girls (not just boys) are taught that there are men's roles and women's roles and the president role belongs to men. There are still many women who will not vote for Hillary because she is a woman. I have a few female friends that will not vote for her for simply because she is a woman. It is hard to take being a woman. Women often don't support other women and I think this is why it has taken us so long to advance in society.

[jmondine]

19. How dare he say obvious things we want to pretend aren't true!

[Yukari Yakumo]

20. Could?

The sexist twits ARE a part of Trump's floor.

Now, how can we use this detail to OUR advantage?