Salon can recognize sexist language. DU not so much.....

[Little Star]

For the record, I do not think the president is a sexist but his comment certainly was.

Salon
By Irin Carmon
Apr 5, 2013

How to talk about a woman’s looks
The president of the United States fails the test -- again

It is not “difficult to call a woman good-looking in public,” not in a world where women’s looks are considered public property, to be commented on, uninvited, whether it’s on the street, in a job interview, or in the press. Many people find it quite easy to do, many of them men, and many people who should know better, like Barack Obama.

This is hardly the first time Obama has been smarmily sexist under the guise of paying a compliment. In the same New York magazine story on Christine Quinn in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg was notoriously quoted saying, “Look at the ass on her,” Obama got a pass for a more politely phrased brand of creepiness. According to the piece, Obama said to a Republican legislator, 32-year-old Nicole Malliotakis, that she didn’t look a day over 23. Quinn promptly joked that Malliotakis should become a Democrat, and the president chimed in, “Come on, honey! I said you’re pretty! I said you look 23!”

Yes, women who seem young and are considered pretty by men obtain certain advantages in our society. That doesn’t mean that the purportedly progressive president of the United States needs to do his part to enforce all that. (Don’t get me started on “honey,” or “sweetie.” No, I can’t take a fucking compliment.) Yes, people notice and appreciate attractiveness in men and women, which is not incompatible with being smart or successful. But women, above all, are subject to a can’t-win calculus in which the desires of men, rather than their objective qualifications, determine how they’re treated — for better or worse. It applies wherever women exist in public, even when looks are entirely irrelevant to the issue at hand.

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/how_to_talk_about_a_womans_looks/

Seems like the president got an education and took it to heart because he has since apologized.

[Whisp]

1. I am glad he apologized.

And even though I really like him and such, he has grown up in the same sexist culture all of us have and some things will stick unintentionally and he will goof.

I think his apology was sincere and heartfelt for he has shown many times he is not afraid to admit he is wrong - which takes a mature and confident person.

Otoh, I know he has sort of joked about stuff like this with men too, and apparently this woman is a good friend, etc., so the media grabs at it and maybe makes it way bigger than it should be.

OtooH, this is kind of good to have out in the open, that Obama apologizes for something like this and the RW assholes who are ripping women's rights apart apologize to their base that they aren't ripping enough.

The contrast is staggering about 'the wrong done to women'.

[redqueen]

2. Thank you for this post.

[Little Star]

3. I agree.

[seabeyond]

7. ya. did i miss the apology/ i have not really followed. heard it. called it stupid. and went on

but, i agree with all your "otoh's"

[Helen Reddy]

4. Agreed.

Just a question though.

What do you believe would have happened if Michelle would have made that observation?

[Little Star]

5. For me personally.....

it would depend on the circumstances. My opinion might also be shaped on if she was a serial repeater. I would also take into account her stature as a public person with more power than the average Joe.

But I don't think the media would have reacted they way they did about the president.

[seabeyond]

6. ya. i would really cheer if this woman joking said... not my job to be easy on your eyes, BUT

i will kick ass for you in the areas you hired me for.

just to say it out loud

it was stupid what obama did. all a man thing. that makes him look the fool. and eveyr man that thinks they are being so cool. we have talked about it out loud too many times, to not know what we are looking at. women are in to high of places to not be able to reject it today.

this shit has got to stop