People respond to fear in many different ways: some flee, some prepare to fight, and others become bigots.
The citizens, media outlets and fellow politicians who use sexist rhetoric to belittle Sen. Hillary Clinton fall into this last category.
Clinton is continually bombarded by ridiculous accusations and stereotypes based on her sex, demonstrating just how fearful most Americans are of women in power.
For example, misogynistic campaign groups abound on Facebook, featuring titles such as, “Hillary Clinton Shouldn’t Run For President, She Should Just Run the Dishes,” or, “Life’s a bitch, why vote for one? Anti-Hillary ’08.”
These groups seem intent on avoiding any kind of reasoned discussion concerning Clinton or her politics. Instead, they compete to see who can hurl the most baseless insult at her.
Of course, you may assume, as I first did, that this only speaks to the nature of immature activity on the Internet, and not to genuine attitudes about Clinton.
Yet, far fewer groups have been established to campaign against the other candidates, and they have generic names such as, “Anti-Romney ’08.”
What makes the online vitriol against Clinton so disturbing is that Facebook is not anonymous ““ the creators of these groups often list their full names and the colleges they attend.
Apparently sexist attitudes are so accepted in our society that college students don’t need to worry about diminishing their job prospects when attaching their names to vulgar and bigoted language.
In response to complaints about the sexist name of the “Run The Dishes” group, one of the administrators threatened to respond to critical e-mails by “using the C-word.”
Truly cringe-worthy, however, is the prejudice featured in the press.
The New York Times has been a repeat offender.
In an article listing Clinton’s past occupations, which include law firm partner, chairwoman of a board and director of three public corporations, the Times describes them as “advisory or collaborative” roles.
I have never heard anyone point to a male firm partner, chairman, or director and say, “His job is to give advice.”
This is because his job is to give orders and when women do this, it makes us uncomfortable so we put different labels on it (like advising and collaborating) to pretend it never happened.
Earlier in the year, the Times spent an entire article describing the way Clinton laughs, labeling it with the obviously gendered word, “cackle.”
Who is generally associated with the word cackle?
Witches, hens and certainly not male politicians.
After the Democratic presidential debate, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., “Do you find it difficult to debate a woman?” Can you imagine the kind of uproar that would have ensued if instead, Matthews had referred to Barack Obama and asked, “Do you find it difficult to debate a black candidate?”
A common defense among those who claim that Clinton deserves criticism on issues such as the neckline of her shirts is that Clinton is ““ brace yourself ““ running as a woman.
I would assume that Clinton does everything as a woman, but apparently campaigning, when female, is an unacceptable offense.
Clifford May, president of the Foundation in Defense of Democracies, in a discussion on MSNBC, said Clinton should be called a “Vaginal-American.”
Yet when male candidates take their obligatory “Look at me! I’m hunting with a really long rifle!” photo shoot, no one accuses them of running as men or being Penile-Americans.
It’s difficult for most Americans to tackle sexism, especially with regard to Clinton.
We often give in to peer pressure, much like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. At an event in November, when a woman, referring to Clinton, asked him, “How do we beat the bitch?” he replied, “That’s an excellent question.”
The reason for this is fear. The American people realize that Clinton is a viable contender and they are terrified of the unknown: a female leader.
I suggest that everyone cease the sexist slurs and innuendo now, not just for decency’s sake, but because it’s counter-productive.
If you really want to intimidate Clinton out of the White House, it might be best if you stopped trembling.
Strickland does not find it difficult to debate men, women or anyone else. Feel free to challenge her at kstrickland@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.