A Product of His Time: Chris Matthews’ Unconscious Bias
June 15, 2010
by Marla Miller
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
I happen to like Chris Matthews, he reminds me of guys I grew up with on the Southside of Chicago. I picture him as an altar boy and okay, maybe an athlete though my guess is, Chris kept the guys laughing way more than he helped them score. I know enough about him to know he enjoys a long term marriage; my guess, probably to a woman perfectly suited for a guy like Chris Matthews; a woman who kept home and hearth together while he reached for the stars.
We know Chris is prone to politically incorrect remarks that at times are tinged with sexism and racism. We’ve heard enough over the years; remarks emblematic of his ‘old school’ rearing. Back in the day, white boys got to boast, brag and even be brutes while the girls giggled at the boys boasting, bragging and being brutes.
Just a few months ago, we heard him utter remarks that sounded racist though I do not believe Chris is a racist. Back in the day, one could say things like “I forgot he was a black man’ and get away with it but that remark about our President’s eloquence instantly became fodder for other politicos, especially those with an ax to grind against Chris Matthews. His most recent politically incorrect remark, aimed at a woman, went something like this, “She oughtta be tied up at the stake like a witch” his reference to Orly Taitz’s win in Nevada.
Old school guys like Chris don’t have the luxury of being unconsciously racist or sexist anymore, at least not without repercussions. People of color don’t like it and neither do women. Unlike the old days, all of us now have a stronger power base to back our disdain. I would hate to see Chris lose his bully pulpit on TV. The guy knows politics and everybody in politics knows him.
But Chris, you can’t run off at the mouth the way you do without consequences so the next time you want to applaud our president or any person of color, would you please use rhetoric emblematic of our 21st century sensibilities? And when you want to express your outrage that a candidate like Orly Taitz is running, don’t rely on 20th century clichés to make your point. I know that back in the day you could get away with comparing a woman to a witch who men burned at the stake. But today, many college courses are devoted to that time in our history when men killed women ‘witches’ who it turns out, weren’t witches at all. They were just women who disagreed with men who back in their day did not appreciate back talk from their property.
Chris, a head’s up: times have changed so get with the program. A man of color is in the White House now. The June primaries offer more evidence of change. Women in politics are here to stay. Not all of us lean left, either. We represent all political and social persuasions. For sure, Taitz offers great fodder for politicos like you but reverting to 18th century images is so 20th century.
Perhaps you can take lessons from your younger colleagues in the business, men raised by moms who schooled them in 21st century etiquette. Change is possible. You can do it, Chris, I know you can.
marla I resent to the juxtaposition of the race and sex insensitive remarks. the point against the women is blatantly picturing utmost violence burning somebody alive. which as you said happened to I believe millions of women in the 13 and 14th century and even to Joan d’Arc who was instrumental rescuing France from the British and became a saint a couple years later, when her trial was nullified. the race insensitive remark does not portray violence but horrible ignorance.
it is the same inappropriate juxtaposition when our president compared his white grandmother’s fears of a black guy at night with the hateful preachings of his pastor.
Oh, come on here.What makes you think Chris Matthews wants to change? I think he rather likes his notoriety no matter how he gets it. He’s been called out by women enough times by now that he knows exactly what’s he’s doing when he makes comments about burning women at the stake. He loves the attention we give him when we call him out. The best thing women could do to school Chris Matthews is to change the channel every time he shows up on TV. I haven’t watched him since the 2008 primaries. Help me make his ratings go down. That’s a message he might have to listen to.
I’m with you samanthasmom…vote with our clickers! I sure have. Prior to 2008, I used to watch MSNBC (even liked Olberman) and CNN exclusively. As a Dem this is what we did. After 2008, I stopped watching MSNBC – period. I watch CNN and FOX now for my news. Apparently, we are not alone as the ratings show.
But I do think we need to call him out. When we did in 2008, we got results. It was largely because of our speaking out and contacting Dems in PA that Matthews did not run for the open senate seat in PA in 2010.
I was in Denver for the Democratic National Convention as a PUMA to observe the extent that the DNC would go to stop Hillary from having a floor count (which everyone before her were allowed to have, even those who didn’t have a snoballs chance in hell of winning — Ted Kennedy) and attended a protest of Chris Matthews Hard Ball forum set up to report on the Convention.
We were there enmasse with posters protesting his sexist assaults against Hillary throughout the primary and all he did was laugh at us, along with the other men in attendance and the obama supporters. The last thing he wants to do is change. He likes the entitlement afforded him as a white male all his life. The patriarchy doesn’t seek enlightenment that WE ALL want the same opportunities they’ve always had to live our lives to the fullest extent possible. If they did, they would have done so by now. Their refusal to change indicates to me that they are not giving up their exalted place in society without a fight.
We have to accept that the kind of person who benefits from entitlement unearned exhibits a selfishness that takes one breath away. Matthews is the epitome of that mindset.
“marla I resent to the juxtaposition of the race and sex insensitive remarks. the point against the women is blatantly picturing utmost violence burning somebody alive” I agree with Marille, I don’t want to read how inciting violence against any women who speaks up is the same as a insensitive comment about the President on a feminist site. If you keep that sort of stuff up you will go the way of NOW who doesn’t remember they were started to represent women’s voices.
Chris won’t change. Frankly, he’s shared a planet with female human beings his whole life and still hasn’t gotten a clue. There’s no clue bat big enough for a skull that thick.
I haven’t watched MSNBC since February 2008 when Olbernut went on his Geraldine Ferraro rant. I refuse to go near their channel until I read in the papers that Olbermutt and Spitty Matthews are gone. If I want news I watch Fox. I don’t watch pundits on any channel other than Greta. O’Reilly has improved significantly since he interviewed Secretary Clinton back in ’08, but I really am not interested in watching any of the men blather on there (i.e. Glenn Beck, Hannity, Cavuto, etc.). CNN is just noise to me, not news.
I do agree I don’t watch national news since the 2008 elections. I used to TIVO Chris Matthews show but MSNBC went completely bonkers during the election and I doubt there is anything that can erase the spectacle they made of themselves.
Explain this to me. If Matthews can be open to recognizing racism whenever it raises its ugly head and calls it out, then why can’t he be equally sensitive to the other ‘ism “sexism” whenever it raises its ugly head?
Men like Matthews were just as “unconsciencely racist” once upon a time but were able to change. So, the way I see it, it has nothing to do with being able to change, but being “willing” to change.
Once men, such as Matthews, acknowledges that sexism is more prevalent than racism, then he will have to do something about it. Playing ignorant gives him the excuse to continue to engage in it.
You are right Kathleen however sexism is so far behind racism awareness in this culture that even “feminist” women don’t recognize sexism. It seems to sort of embarrass them and they often seem to want to show how much sexism they can tolerate to gain approval. People who still claim to be Democrats don’t acknowledge there was any sexism in the 2008 Dem primary yet they find imaginary racism everywhere. Frankly I find the fact that the above article equates the Matthews quote “She oughtta be tied up at the stake like a witch” with the quote “I forgot he was a black man” because the one about the woman is inciting violence. This is supposed to be a pro woman site and yet the women who would call them selves feminist can’t figure this out?!
I think you are right that sexism could be eliminated if it weren’t tolerated by so many in society however the Progressive Democrats and Liberal Democrats have internalized sexist sayings and values and they just enjoy their sexism so much that it isn’t going to go away soon. Most of them don’t believe there is a problem with images of women in media either.
Bes,
At the core of sexism is the hatred of women. A need to belittle and control them. How can men feel this way towards women. Don’t they all have mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers?
Does this hatred evolve from an “Oedipus complex” that results in an overwhelming fear that any son would have should he ever have feelings of sexual attraction towards his own mother and the only way to override these feelings is to turn to hating women?
Or is this hatred of women come from a self-hatred of themselves and their inability to express their emotions, as women do, and so rather than to risk being vulnerable in learning how to connect with their emotional side, they choose rather to denigrate this quality in themselves and then rationalize it by viewing it as a weakness in women?
What’s most disturbing is that even though society as a whole has evolved tremendously in technology, art, culture, science, medicine, music, etc., beyond our wildest dreams, and the women have evolved right along with these advances in society; however, the male psyche seems not to have evolved beyond a desire for power, control and resorting to war in order to conquer other men and be viewed as the “alpha male on the block?” Is this deliberate on men’s part or an inheret weakness in the XY chromosome?
Either way, this stunted view of women is the cause of all the turmoil and chaos and human suffering that has existed on this planet since the beginning of time and is precisely why we need more women in power to counter these aggressive tendancies that almost always overtake men whenever they obtain power of any kind.
My name is Dr. Orly Taitz, ESQ. I am an attorney and a Dr. of Dental Surgery. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann were attacking me. I would like to thank Marla Miller for standing up for me. I really appreciate it. I never knew of New Agenda, somebody forwarded this article to me, I appreciate the support and I will pay the dues and will join the organization.
I was rather depressed before, because of the attacks. A number of deranged people started sending e-mails to me, to my political website RunOrlyRun.com and my blog OrlyTaitzEsq.com. They were writing that I need to be burned at the stake. I have a family and 3 children. This was not pleasant.
I need to make a small correction. I am not in Nevada, but rather in OC, CA. I ran for Secretary of State in Republican primary, I already got 435,000 votes, counting continues, but I did not win.
I was attacked because, as an attorney, I bring to court evidence, which sometimes is an inconvenient truth, however it is what it is. Latest development, is that my opponent in Republican primary, Damon Dunn, committed fraud. I brought this info to court. He did not disclose on his voter registration card the fact that he registered in 2 other states, and that he registered as a Democrat. MSNBC is attacking me and calling me a racist, even though it has nothing to do with the race. It has to do with the elecctions fraud. I am a Constitutional attorney and bringing it to the public. MSNBC and their hosts need to issue an apology, they are simply instigating violence against me and it might end badly.
thanks again
Sincerly Orly Taitz
Orly,
We’re glad that you found us and Marla’s piece. If you would like to write about what has happened to you as you describe above and make it into a blog piece, we would be happy to put it on our blog. These types of sexist acts have no place in our national discourse!
(blog@thenewagenda.net)
Kathleen: I generally agree with you. The thing is not all men are misogynist. My Dad, Husband and Son are all Momma’s boys and love women. They like all things female. My son threw out his male roommates and replaced them with women within the first 6 weeks he was away from home. When his friends told him the women were bossing him around, he replied “I like bossy women they get things done”. He said to me one time..”I don’t like men, if I had my way they would all disappear from earth except for I need around 200 of them to ski and play soccer and skateboard against”. And no he does not have a sexual arrangement with any of the roommates.
Also some women seem to get a thrill out of degrading other women for male approval. They are just as misogynist as any man.
The other thing, you mentioned XY chromosome weakness. I don’t know how to put up a picture here but search images of human XY chromosomes. The male chromosome is about a fifth the size of the X chromosome so there is no doubt in my mind that something is missing. I can’t figure out why this isn’t talked about in popular culture, If the X chromosome was a micro chromosome we would hear about it non stop.
He’s part of the pampered boys club at MSNBC; long past any relevance or credibility.
Bes,
I agree, not all men are mysognists, but there are simply not enough of them to turn the tide against those who are. Unfortunately, while they can openly express their respect, love and appreciation of us to our face, they rarely, if ever, as a group publicly speak out in defense of women because they would be attacked and vilified as women are.
When these wonderful men who see us as human beings, equal to them, are willing to unite and stand up for us (as they now do for the AA community against racism) to the larger population of men who don’t, I think it would make a huge difference in how much progress we would make in getting through to those men who can still conclude in the 21st century that it’s ok to hate women. I bet most of them don’t even know why they hate women! I will never, ever understand the ability of men to be able to hate another human being for just being female.
And men say women are hard to understand!!!
Dr. Taitz,
I am so sorry to hear about what happened to you in your race to be SOS. I have worked in election reform for over 7 years and know very well the kinds of election fraud that exists and it should be exposed whenever it happens.
Do you have the documentation and evidence available to show election fraud in your race? If so, could you contact me. While it will be great to write an article, it would also be good to get this information to those election reform groups (2 of which I am closely affiliated), so that they, too, can publicize what happened too. This kind of election fraud must be exposed in every way that it can, if we ever hope to prevent it.
Let me know if you’re interested in my suggestion.
Marla,
Terrific piece. Maybe he’ll listen, but I doubt it. Dosen’t matter really matter to me. What counts is what we’re doing…and right now, at this moment, we’re coming out of our slumber. I, too, have watched and liked the gang at MSNBC….still do occasionally. But, their sexism has always made me cringe. I’m over the cringing. It’s time to call it out every single time it happens.
Pat
I personally loved the article, Marla. It is relaxed and forgiving, but still calls out the core issue of his sexist language. If Chris Matthews were to read this, he might actually feel shame and/or compelled to change. We need more persuasion and less diatribe.
Not that anger and outrage don’t have their merits. I like also that the comments are less forgiving. It will let Matthews and any other person who hasn’t give much thought to sexist language how such language is perceived in the moment and movement.
Balance is good.
And welcome, Ms. Taitz, to The New Agenda!
I love Chris Matthews even though, it seems on nearly every show, he says something that makes me cringe. I hope he reads this article, Marla, and takes it to heart. Good job!
now we have it twice: Chris Matthews “She oughtta be tied up at the stake like a witch” and from a probably anonymous emailer to Dr. Orly Taitz the threat to “have her burned at the stake”. this is hate language and needs to be addressed as such. this is way beyond sexism. who can file suits with this new law?
nobody finds it funny to threaten with lynching, but apparently that women burned at the stake is still a joke?
Lynn,
Please explain to me how you can “love Chris Matthws” after how he treated Hillary and Sarah Palin during the election? He didn’t even try to be subtle with his sexist remarks, and as marille states above, he even advocated burning Hillary at the stake.
Men would never accept this kind of treatment from women and rightfully so. However, why is that many women can turn a blind eye to an attitude that, like racism, should not be tolerated in any shape, form or fashion.
Imagine if Matthews had made the burning at the stake comment against the AA community. Would they just cringe and let it go with a pass?
We could also consider the island or the glacier effect where you only see the tip of the iceburg. Chris Mathews might think it is ok to say these things because of the worse and similar things he says with his buddies or coworkers or superiors behind the scenes. It’s important to look at the ramifications, but publically sanctioned hatred against a group, such as women, is unconscionable regardless of the ramifications. Women get death threats, possibly more than men do, women are hated for doing very similar things that men are loved for. There is no base or fundamentalism to people’s opinions, they are completely biased and arbitrary and we need to admit that and stop hating or sanctioning it. It’s not all the time that these misogynist men are intelligent and choose their viscious words carefully for any particular effect, sometimes its just reactionary like an automaton that’s joked with his buddies about women one too many times that he just thinks its funny.
A lot of other people are conditioned with this attidude that if men, they are joking around, you gotta love em, because (the joking is cute stuff) it all goes back to the child rebelling against his first authority: a woman.
Bes I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the effect of having only one X chromosome and no recombination. What exactly they call the Y chromosome. I mean, if it were men labelling this and it was the other way around they would call it the YY and the Y 1/4thY..or some labelling that would capture the essence of defectiveness. But truly its not defective it’s just what happened when, in my opinion, the asexually reproducing common ancestors were split into male and female. When I see a man I end up seeing a more accurate image of our asexual common ancestor, or a chimp that hasn’t “evolved” so to speak hasn’t changed as much over time. Is this the problem? I don’t think so, but from a purely practical point of view, men are dangerous to women. Whatever the cause of misogyny they sure do express it, and they are a threat. I can say that we like our all female beaches, and that conspiracy of conspiracies is htat men are trying to replace women with sex robots; no kidding. They think solving the problem is that people want servants so lets just make robots servants. But that’s not going to solve the problem; neither is making sex robots and killing off women. The world might be a better place for women without men, regardless of whether or not violence itself or class/status itself would disappear. taht’s what i’ve been thinking about.
You are spot on Marille! This language is loaded with gender bias. BURNING WOMEN AT THE STAKE is a huge part of our misogynistic history and is every bit as insulting and sexist as advocating the lynching of black men is racist.
But of course, women are still being burned to death in many cultures and here in america we embrace violence aganst women at almost every turn. Our culture refuses to recognize the epidemic of rape, murder and battery that women and girls endure routinely.
MSNBC was plugging for that little boy who came up missing last week in Oregon. I watched it again today several times. CNN is also plugging for him. All I could think of was that if that was a little girl, they wouldn’t still be talking about it, unless her body surficed. I started following Gretta on FOX, in large part because she was the only one in the major networks keeping tabs on the female body count. MSNBC almost never spends time on cases involving missing women and girls. Nobody admits that 9 out of ten victems are girls. Why isn’t Solidad O’Brian, doing a special on being female in America?
God forbid, CNN would admit to misogyny in America!!!!! Like every rape, murder or battering of a woman or girl in this country is an isolated situation that has nothing to do with how women are regarded in our society. Solidad could have a field day on “Being Female in America! A women or girl is raped every 6 minutes in this country, but there is no sexism in America worth talking about! Its all in the Congo and Afghanistan.
You can’t begin to fix the problem until you admit that it exists!
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