Bob Herbert: Presidential Campaign has Opened Door to Sexism Issue So “Let’s Have At It”
We totally heart NYT columnist Bob Herbert for his right-on analysis of the sudden popularity of gender issues. I’m going to quote a few paras here, but you should definitely go read the full piece, it rocks!
“It just so happens that the Democratic presidential candidates are campaigning this week in the misogyny capital of America: Nevada. It’s a perfect place to bring up the way women are viewed and treated in this society, but don’t hold your breath. Presidential wannabes are hardly in the habit of insulting the locals.”
“The fundamental problem in all of this is that women and girls are dehumanized, opening the floodgates to every kind of mistreatment. “Once you dehumanize somebody, everything else is possible,â€? said Taina Bien-Aimé, executive director of the women’s advocacy group Equality Now.”
“We’ve become so used to the disrespectful, degrading, contemptuous and even violent treatment of women that we hardly notice it. Staggering amounts of violence are unleashed against women and girls every day. Fashionable ads in mainstream publications play off of that violence, exploiting themes of death and dismemberment, female submissiveness and child pornography.If we’ve opened the door to the issue of sexism in the presidential campaign, then let’s have at it. It’s a big and important issue that deserves much more than lip service.”
How excellent to see these issues getting this thoughtful visibility!
Filed under: Uncategorized, Commentary, U.S. Politics, Gender-Based Violence, Media
I only wish more male and female journalists too were as ‘radical’ as Bob Herbert in speaking out about the increasing misogyny being perpetrated on women and girls. Herbert is right - when we read, see and hear nothing but images of women and girls being violently beaten, raped and abused by men it is not surprising we become detached. Everyday images of men’s blatant hatred, contempt and loathing for women and girls has become so normalised it is now supposedly not an issue. Just think how lucky men are that they do not routinely see images of their gender being sexually abused, raped and murdered by women who hate men because they happen to be male. But I forget only males are human according to the misogynstic definition.