Patterico's Pontifications

9/9/2008

A Feminist’s Advice to the Media

Filed under: 2008 Election,Media Bias — DRJ @ 1:39 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Polls show a marked shift in how likely women voters view the Presidential candidates after Sarah Palin was named McCain’s VP, especially among independents. Some women may have been energized by Palin’s gender, some by her beliefs and speeches, and some by the way the media and bloggers treated her. I doubt all these women will remain McCain-Palin supporters over the next 2 months but I think both the media and bloggers failed to consider how women would react to their treatment of Sarah Palin.

Here’s one example that might surprise them:

The National Organization of Women (NOW) website includes this column by NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy. Gandy is very unhappy with the GOP platform “on issues like reproductive rights, economic justice and equal marriage” and has pledged to work against it and the McCain-Palin ticket. She is also indignant at the media treatment of Sarah Palin:

“Which brings us back to Sarah Palin, who, as I write this, has been McCain’s VP choice for less than one week, and already has faced an onslaught of double standards and condescension. The sexism aimed at Palin might not look exactly the same as the sexism directed Clinton, but it originates from the same biased place nonetheless.
***
I feel for Palin, and for all women struggling to be taken seriously in a man’s realm; the desire to have people discuss your policies, not your hair or hemlines; the conviction that you have every right to raise your family as you see fit, including taking on a demanding job outside the home; the entirely reasonable expectation that you are the peer of your male colleagues and deserve the same treatment and opportunities that they receive.”

Gandy concludes by asking media viewers, readers, and listeners to join together to stop the media slurs because “A woman slurred, regardless of her party or stances, is a woman slurred.”

I hope the media and bloggers can set aside their political agendas long enough to think about what Gandy has written, as well as these words from NOW’s 1966 Statement of Purpose:

“Enormous changes taking place in our society make it both possible and urgently necessary to advance the unfinished revolution of women toward true equality, now. With a life span lengthened to nearly 75 years it is no longer either necessary or possible for women to devote the greater part of their lives to child-rearing; yet childbearing and rearing which continues to be a most important part of most women’s lives — still is used to justify barring women from equal professional and economic participation and advance.”

We’ve come a long way in America: We will have our first minority President or our first female Vice President. Things have already changed in America. It’s time for the media and bloggers to get on board.

— DRJ

24 Responses to “A Feminist’s Advice to the Media”

  1. DRJ – I saw Gandy interviewed on MSNBC last week, and she was far less honorable in her position.

    JD (3f9019)

  2. It seems like Baracky’s order are beginning to sink in to his followers.

    JD (3f9019)

  3. The worst case of sexism came from Sally Quinn. Other than that I’ve heard nothing, except one comment by an Obama money man. But it’s not a slur to call her a liar.

    Question: There are three major bridge and road projects greenlighted by the Murkowski administration the Knik Arm Bridge, the Gravina Island Bridge, and the Juneau Access Project. Now, odds are that after the whole “Bridge to Nowhere” label by the national press and their cronies, there’ll be no more federal money coming. So my question for you is which of these projects do you support, and is this the best use of current federal transportation dollars and future state transportation dollars? We’ll begin with Sarah Palin.

    Sarah Palin: You know, I support these infastructure projects, and will build Alaskans, it’s cheeper to do today than it is tomorrow.”

    JAR (08f6d2)

  4. This has to be a crushing blow to feminist groups like NOW and Emily’s List. It goes to show them just how narrow their appeal truly is.

    WLS (26b1e5)

  5. WLS – I am not sure that calling NOW a woman’s group is fair to women. They are an abortion organization.

    JD (3f9019)

  6. JAR – Copying and pasting TPM comments is no substitue for actually having an original thought. You ought to try it sometime. Though, Josh is good about getting you your daily talking points.

    Do you think it is really in Baracky’s best interests to continue to crack on the Bridge to Nowhere, when he and his running mate, voted in favor of it twice, each?

    JD (3f9019)

  7. So-called feminists don’t care about the rights of all women. What’s paramount is pushing the liberal agenda. Look at the double standard with Bill Clinton boorish, sexist behavior. Some feminazis excused Billy because “powerful men have powerful appetites”. I recall one NOW bigwig vowing that she’s be only to happy to fellate Bill.
    I’ve tried calling feminists on their indifference toward the suffering of women world-wide, such as the way Islam maltreats women. Their response was that it was all clutural and they should not interfere. If Muslim women are unhappy with the state of affairs, they should protest and push for change. They could go strike by neglecting household chores or withholding sex. Yeah right, that’ll work just fine.
    As an aside, what the hell is wrong with Rice? She’s unhappy that there are not enough black diplomats in the State Dept.? So we need racial quotas there too? Let’s judge people on the color of their skin rather than on the thickness of it?
    I think both Quinn and Mitchell have backed off lately on criticism of Palin. Gloria Steinem is something else however. What a grump old hag has-been. And BabaStreisand will sing for Obambi?

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  8. “Other than that I’ve heard nothing, except one comment by an Obama money man.”

    If you actually believe that tripe, then you’ve proven yourself to be an asshat beyond all expectations. Wear that hat proudly, JARHEAD!

    Dmac (e639cc)

  9. The worst case of sexism came from Sally Quinn. Other than that I’ve heard nothing, except one comment by an Obama money man.

    They are bold and aggressive with their lies.

    JD (3f9019)

  10. I suspect this is how JARHEAD conducts himself when reading and/or hearing things that cause him extreme cognitive dissonance:

    “Na, Na, Na, Na! Caaaaan’t hear you! (holds hands over ears) Mommy, make it stop! NOOOOO!”

    This also might occur when his actual mother suggests it’s time to go upstairs and snuggle with his blanky, due to becoming overstimulated during the daytime.

    Dmac (e639cc)

  11. …or too much ingestion of Apple Juice.

    Dmac (e639cc)

  12. …or too many playings of Yaffi.

    Dmac (e639cc)

  13. JD links please. But since you won’t I will.

    Certainly some things in there to piss me off. But it (again) goes to show Big Mac and co. are lying when they say Obama never “reaches across the aisle” to work with republicans.

    In any event, I think you’ll understand the difference between the process of voting on a bill and adding requests and then lying about it.
    At least in Alaska, apparently they admit it

    JAR (08f6d2)

  14. I hear all this talk about how the Republicans are going to work in dealing with parents who have both the joy, because there’s joy to it as well, the joy and the difficulty of raising a child who has a developmental disability, who were born with a birth defect. Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don’t you support stem cell research? — Joe Biden

    There are few scientists, if any, who believe that stem cell research will produce a treatment of Down’s Syndrome or other developmental disabilities, so is Joe Biden suggesting that Sarah Palin should have sacrificed her son, Trig, at the altar of science in the hope that perhaps his cells “could” produce a cure for juvenile diabetes or such ?

    Neo (cba5df)

  15. Obama gets personal .. now it’s gonna get ugly.

    “You can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.”

    Neo (cba5df)

  16. I have two words for Kim Gandy:

    Paula Jones!

    NOW doesn’t give a tinker’s damn about women. They’ve already proved that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

    The organization apparently exists for two reasons, to support the Democrat Party and protect its male members (sometimes female members too) from charges of rape, physical abuse, and witness intimidation, and to retain the option of killing babies whenever it proves convenient.

    Ropelight (49e412)

  17. What will they say when the find out that Hussein O out of his own mouth called Palin a pig with lipstick and said ‘you can wrap fish in a newspaper but it will still stink’ in reference to Palin. Palin is a pig and women stink like dead fish, ain’t that cute of Hussein. That boy is totally crazy but it shows his connection to Islam and his ‘muslem faith’ (his own words also) in the treatment of women. He is not black (is half Arab) so calling him a boy is not an insult.

    Scrapiron (d671ab)

  18. Fifty years ago it would have been nearly impossible for either scenario to have been a reality. But people have changed and most have come to reject outright racism and bigotry. If there is sexism and racism still in play, it is as much a problem on the left as it is on the right. Need I cite examples?

    To me, as a Reagan conservative, it has never been about race or sex or even religion. But it has been very much about policy stands. I reject liberal politics and it does not matter to me whether those liberal politics are being pushed by white, black, old, young, male or female, straight or gay. I simply reject it because it is wrong and will always be wrong.

    If an upstanding candidate stands for conservative principles that I can agree with, they have my support. If they also have charisma that can win elections, they have my enthusiastic support. It has been a long time since I’ve stood and cheered a candidate but I stand and cheer for McCain-Palin and mostly because of Palin, a woman.

    It is getting tiresome that some even in the conservative blogging community see fit to pull out that racism and sexism caution flag for all to see. When they do, I hope they get that surge of self-satisfaction I’ve come to see in so many on the left. But it is a cheap shot, regardless of who does it, and it belittles the real reasons why we as conservatives oppose someone like Obama, Biden and Hillary.

    Arnold (1a3b0c)

  19. #18 Arnold: Ah, nicely done that. A clarion voice of reason.

    EW1(SG) (3f9181)

  20. John McCain

    Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, “Where is that marvelous ape?”

    John McCain

    At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, “You’re getting a little thin up there.” McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.”

    whatever (6b0755)

  21. There’s only one cunt here. But, go ahead and spew. What-ev-er.

    Icy Truth (894e4f)

  22. When Hillary Clinton was a competitor for the Democrat ticket, I used to point out the sexism in the way she was treated. Granted, not everything she complained about was sexism, but there was certainly some, and most women noticed it, whether they were Hillary supporters or not.

    Now, Sarah Palin has been through far more in a shorter time period than Hillary Clinton did in her campaign, and women are, again, reacting to it.

    I don’t really care whether NOW fully supports Sarah Palin or the Republican ticket, but at least they’ve done more to distance themselves from the slurs (IMO) than most liberal bloggers who have decided “she deserves it!” is a good excuse.

    Sharon (a682a8)

  23. “themselves from the slurs (IMO) than most liberal bloggers who have decided “she deserves it!” is a good excuse.”
    Name one who’s said that.

    On the other hand she is a liar.
    Male or female, it makes no difference.

    whatever (6b0755)

  24. Keep it up, whatever. You and your ilk make our case and strengthen our cause. Can you spell r-e-v-e-n-g-e??? Better polish your PDS.

    Peg C. (48175e)


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