As the 2020 presidential campaign starts picking up steam, be on the lookout for the various ways in which journalists, describe the women candidates who have opted in to the 2020 election. Outright sexist descriptions will likely be less prominent than in the past, since most good political writers have been completely sensitized to the issue.
You probably won’t see words like ‘abrasive”, ’emotional’, or ‘strident’ used when describing Senators Harris, Warren or Gillibrand. unless the writer has just emerged from a 20 year coma or writes for conservative publications. You also won’t see many efforts at describing the candidates’ appearance either which has become unacceptable.
But there still remains ways for sexist language to slip into political descriptions of female politicians. Am reminded of an example I read years ago which appeared in an article describing former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s participation in the annual Labor Day walk across the Mackinac Bridge. (Can’t remember which Michigan newspaper it appeared in.)
She was described as “scampering across the Bridge,” When I read that line, the word ‘scampering’ jumped out immediately.. A man would never be depicted as scampering across anything in print unless the writer intended it to be a derogatory remark.. ‘Scamper’ is a word one uses to describe children and little animals….not a governor of a state or any woman for that matter,.
If the media has learned not to dwell on a candidate’s appearance, there is still a personality feature they still want to address and that is the notion of likeability. Here is an article from The Guardian which tackles that question head on and discusses how prevalent it happens to be in discussing female candidates in the mainstream media.
Of course any woman alive to day in this culture understands the role likeability plays in their life. For most, it is important to be ‘nice’ socially and especially in the workplace. In the past it was key to advancing one’s career..Maybe that notion of pleasantness is changing more in today’s world but evidently still hangs around the neck of woman politicians.
Challenge yourself to see if the quality of likeability surfaces in your assessment of the various women candidates. Would you like to see Elizabeth Warren be less ,,,,, you fill in the blank. Did your word have something to do with personality or ideology? (Persoanlity for me,) What about Kamala Harris? and Kirsten Gillibrand? We are all products of our culture and to root out sexism we need to start with ourselves.
Sexism remains an endemic part of the American psyche. So watch for it in our politics. And please send along an example or two if you read or hear any examples as you peruse the news. I will publish the list if we collect some good ones.
Enjoy the article.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/04/why-the-likability-question-pursues-2020-female-candidates-even-as-they-make-history
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Can we make lemonade out of political lemons? Writing daily since November 9th, 2016