Digby on the Gender Card: "Let's See What You've Got, Babe"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

(This is just an excerpt. The whole piece is worth reading, and quite entertaining)

... I will be eagerly looking forward to (Chris Matthews) and the rest of the commentators calling out the entire Republican field for also playing the "gender" card as they've been doing for the past few decades. Indeed, the entire Republican campaign strategy can be said to be one big gender card...

Every presidential candidate, and most other politicians, since 1980, have been bowing and scraping before this constituency. But for some reason, the hunting trips and codpieces and brush clearing and all that metaphorical crotch measuring isn't considered playing "the gender card." It's just considered the normal political pander to an aggrieved minority vote: the poor white males who've been treated terribly by all those powerful women and minorities and gays. What could be wrong with that?

I'm sorry, but this is truly sexist crap. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are out there one upping each other on who will be the most macho sadists among the crowd of warring GOP thugs. Hillary goes to her alma mater and says that her education at the women's college prepared her to do battle with the political boys club and the gasbags' eyes roll back in their heads and they start drooling and whining that she's she's broken the rules. Well boo fucking hoo. The rules are changing. Get used to it.

Half of this country is female and they've noticed, in case these manly men haven't, that presidential politics is a very exclusive a boys club and we don't find it all that odd to mention it. Certainly, if it's ok for politicians to literally walk around with a codpiece to show their masculine bona fides, I don't think it's out of line for a female candidate to speak to a younger generation of women at her college and take a little bit of pride in the institution and her own accomplishments --- since she does happen to be the first serious female contender for president in the whole history of the country. Excuse me for thinking she has the damned right to do it. ...

http://haloscan.com/tb/digby/8627646965234209917

[Evergreen Emerald]

1. Awesome

[polichick]

2. Some of us talked about this the other night and it's SO TRUE...

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3677964>

[emilyg]

3. Damn right.

[polichick]

4. I especially like this line:

"But for some reason, the hunting trips and codpieces and brush clearing and all that metaphorical crotch measuring isn't considered playing "the gender card.""

LOL

[The Count]

5. Great! Link doesn't work though :-(

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. sorry! CORRECTED LINK HERE

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/lets-see-what-youve-got-babe-by-digby.html

[The Count]

13. THANKS! been a fan of Digby since she was a poster on Bartcop forum

She only gets better and better!

[Sparkly]

7. Thanks for posting this!

:thumbsup:

[Sparkly]

8. Linked from Digby at Open Left

"Every President in History Has Played the Male Gender Card"
http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2196

Edit -- Another good one, here: http://thegarance.com/archives/894

[riqster]

9. Excellent article!

One of my people was harassed by a male 'superior', and he got all pissy when she filed a complaint. Holy Christ, man, he broke the fucking law, and he was acting all victimized. And yes, he said "she played the gender card". Neanderthals don't like it when women stand up for themselves.

Not much difference here, really. Lots of insecure fools have had knives out for Clinton since before her husband became our last legitimately elected President, and they're still scared of her. Buncha limp-dicked wussies.

Hey...guess what.....lean in closer....ready..... HILLARY'S FEMALE! HOW THE HELL DO WANT HER TO ACT, FOR CHRIST'S FUCKING SAKE?!?

I happen to think that Bill Clinton got really lucky when he found Hillary. And he knows it and says so. And if she's our next President, we'll be lucky too. She is not my first choice, but she'll be a great President if she gets the nod.

Hell, it'll be worth it just to watch all those closeted, woman-hating, needle-dicked Reeps puking when she takes the oath. Put it on pay-per-view, it'll make millions....

[pnwmom]

10. I loved this. Thank you! n/t

[Adelante]

11. Go Digby!

:thumbsup:

[izzybeans]

12. Only a person facing an uphill battle in terms of gender or race has to pull cards

those cards are already aces for rich white men.


Those that say "you had to pull cards to win, whaaa, whaaa...blah...blah" sound like that asshole bridge player who laughs at others for needing to pull more cards from the deck without realizing that their hand is purely a matter of luck in a game of chance (or in this case that the dealer has stacked the deck in their favor). They always walk away with the illusion that they have some sort of superior skill set. The most entertaining event to watch is the pissing and moaning when they start losing. "Well you had to pull 'the card' in order to win. How underhanded could you get?"

To them I say "Tis the nature of the game. Especially when you have already created an unfair playing field. I have no way of fighting back without pulling those cards. So go fuck yourself."

I don't like hillary, but whateva'. Republicans pull the gender card on Hillary anyway. The democratic debate just looked like a few people who disagree with the front runner and realize her direction is disastrous.

[The Count]

14. Like political correctness - another RW meme- adopted by the unaware

it's amply used to close any class/poverty debate by those who stand to lose from it.
Sometimes is used to avoid debate on racial discrimination - or here - gender discrimination.

[Karmadillo]

15. Kick

nt