Wow — if you care about breaking stereotypes, read this.
So my dad and I had a lengthy discussion about politics yesterday, and I was saying how it bothered me so greatly that people(mostly men) didn’t like Hillary Clinton “just because” — they essentially had no reason other than not liking a woman in power — and while they never came outright and said that, there was no other reasonable explanation for her supposedly rubbing them the wrong way.
I remember reading a quote from the black lady who ran for president in 72, saying how she faced more discrimination for being a woman than for being black.
Nick Kristof, today in the New York Times wrote: In particular, one lesson from this research is that promoting their own successes is a helpful strategy for ambitious men. But experiments have demonstrated that when women highlight their accomplishments, that’s a turn-off. And women seem even more offended by self-promoting females than men are … The broader conundrum is that for women, but not for men, there is a tradeoff in qualities associated with top leadership. A woman can be perceived as competent or as likable, but not both.
Again, we should be afraid of a society that is so strongly against having a woman in office (not because her name is Clinton) just because she’s female.
Although I agree with my dad, that Obama means hope for so many generations to come — black, white, latino, Indian, Chinese, whatever race, whatever gender, whatever nationality — it still greatly disturbs me in this country that we would allow our fear of women to throw this election.
Now I come from an African family where the male has final say (interesting side note that my mother supports Hillary Clinton– because she’s a woman) so I’m used to a patriarchal society. Now don’t get me wrong, my mom has say in family decisions, this is not King and the rest of us our subservient, but everything runs through the male.
So I can understand that many people may have grown up in similar homes where the authority of the male is unquestionable, or even if there is a balance of power, the mother is restricted to menial house managing duties — cleaning, cooking, raising kids, picking up kids, etc. (The stereoytpical soccer mom)
But it bugs me to no end — in fact, I’d almost rather see Hillary Clinton be president just to make all men bow their heads and lose some of that huge ego we all carry.
Clothing and appearance generally matter more for women than for men, research shows. Surprisingly, several studies have found that it’s actually a disadvantage for a woman to be physically attractive when applying for a managerial job. Beautiful applicants received lower ratings, apparently because they were subconsciously pegged as stereotypically female and therefore unsuited for a job as a boss.
How many times have you heard the “dumb blond” stereotypical jokes, whether they emanate from middle - school adolescents, or from their fathers, the jokes certainly exist.
And when you look at an ad like godaddy, or a music video (even when the feature is the female singer her self — like in the case of Christina Aguilera) you have to ask yourself: is this all women are worth?
If you’ve read my blogs on xanga, or even on Facebook, you’ve seen me write about the value of a woman — and in fact, I’ll post one of my old writings tomorrow.
I’ve jokingly made derogatory remarks about a woman’s potential — so I’m calling myself out too on this issue — but it is inexcusable, unjust, and even perfidious if we as a nation reject the rule of a woman simply because she’s female.
I suspect this is the real reason why 47% of the country does not want her to see President.
This is still, sadly, mostly about image.
White man, white woman, and a black man are in the race. And while I’ve spoken extensively about racism, and my own experiences with it in this town, nothing would hurt more than to see a woman knocked out and not given a fair chance by millions of men and women in America because they don’t like to see this powerful woman. It just tells me that people, racist or not, would rather be ruled by a man — be he non-white — than they would by a woman.
And don’t tell me it’s because she’s uncharismatic because I know plenty of men who HATE Oprah and would never, ever, in a million years even consider voting for her, even though she’s as charismatic as they come.
Think about it all you Obama/McCain lovers — whats the deeper issue behind this Hillary-hating?
Only when we as a nation can ask the difficult questions will we ever break out of our naive mindset — and I don’t think we’ll see that anytime soon.
There is no excuse for denying a woman the chance for leadership, there is no reason for this misogyny, and ultimately the question all Americans, male or female should ask themselves is:
‘Would I want my daughter to be treated this same way?”
