One Wish from TNA
July 16, 2010
by Optixmom
|17 Comments
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
We at TNA are completely open with the fact that we want more women represented in our government, from any party. Our wish for the future is to have the following happen for all candidates running for public office:
Instead we have a bias from the media and our society. This bias tends to create a demeaning frenzy against a woman candidate. We at TNA hope that we can reach our wish in the very near future instead of having to deal with what is happening at present pictured below…
I have to tell you in Washington state women candidates are treated as fairly as men the only time I see a demeaning sexist frenzy against a woman candidate is in the national media which originates on the East Coast and that seems to be the only kind of coverage they give to women in politics. I am pretty sick of it. We need local news coverage of national topics because the national media is too condescending towards women viewers and candidates.
I love this. Sadly its true. I don’t see this locally as I do from the National Press.
When people give me flak for supporting only women candidates (I’d say “voting only for women candidates,” but since voting is apparently a useless puppet show, I’m not confident it matters anymore), I tell them that I don’t vote only for women. I vote only for candidates who are subjected to the garbage on the left side of that picture.
It just so happens — whattacoincidence! — that the leftmost candidate is always a woman.
yeap I’m somehow no longer offended when someone calls ME crazy for supporting both Hillary and Sarah! the JOKE is on them!
That’s a good cartoon and diagram! I wouldn’t mind seeing something like that in a brochure you could hand out. Sometimes I feel like I’m talking to people who need a really simple graphic because they say things that make me crazy like, “what sexism do female candidates face? I’ve never seen any sexism.”
Really. It’s awful how we’re treated. For instance, women’s looks are far more scrutinized that men’s. Women have to be attractive. Then if you are attractive, don’t wear high heals or you’ll be accused of being too sexy (Sarah Palin).
I’ve seen plenty of sexism towards Washington State female candidates, Bes. I really wish you’d stop pretending there is no sexism in our state. As for the media, again may I remind you that the local media generally doesn’t offer opinions/commentary so it cannot be compared to the constant flow of opinions/sexism on the national cable news shows.
Patti: I have never pretended there is no sexism in Washington state. I have said we have two women Senators, a woman Governor who is not our first woman governor and half of our state supreme court including the chief justice are women and none of these women are legacies. When women run for office in Washington they are not mocked or sexualized by the local media. Our media is far less sexist. That does not mean there is zero sexism in Washington state. I have never tried to state there is no sexism in Washington state. I have said we are 25 years ahead of the East Coast.
The East Coast states are lagers in their attitudes towards women in government. Adding to the problem is their firm belief that they are the best, most advanced people on earth. Since we have the misfortune of having all “national news” originate from the East coast we are forced to witness their superior yet ignorant attitude towards women in government and since we don’t have the option of cable TV a la carte we are forced to subsidize their attitudes or get zero channels. I especially hate the little wink wink spin they put on their sexist spew as if “we superior people don’t believe this but that’s how the rest of the country feels”. Well East Coast you need to own you own bigotry against women not blame others.
Also why does all “national news” originate on the east coast? I just heard how “we” are having a blistering hot summer perhaps the hottest summer ever. Really? 65 degrees and cloudy is blistering? Oh! they meant the Important People are having a blistering summer and and we are supposed to find that interesting and relevant weather news. How many channels of Seattle perspective news do you think East Coasters pay for in their basic cable? Well why are we stuck subsidizing their sexist political spew and irrelevant weather commentary?
I agree that we see this more in the national press than in local/state coverage. Could it be because we have progressed as a country to where many will accept women in positions of limited power, but to accept a woman as leader of the whole country still frightens many?
And I wouldn’t blame the East Coast for all sexist coverage. A lot of those reporters and writers aren’t originally from the East Coast. And there are plenty of states outside the East Coast that have real issues in electing women to any positions of power. As of 2008, Iowa was one of 4 states to have never elected a woman to the US House or Senate. I don’t know what the other 3 states are.
FYI – Iowa, Mississippi, Vermont, and Delaware are the states that have never sent a woman to US House or Senate. — and Montana hasn’t had a woman serve in Congress since 1943.
Vermont? Shocking!
Actually all of that is shocking SA
Bes is correct, there’s plenty of sexism in the Pacific Northwest, it’s just nothing like you see coming from the other side of the country that always portrays itself as so civilized and enlightened. Washington has had female Governors, Senators, and Palin up in Alaska never realized she was supposed to stay in her place and limit her options according to her gender. She calls it the old pioneer feminism and in a way she is correct. We have jokes about that, when you’re in the wilderness you just want somebody to help you haul the firewood and if you’re demeaning towards women, you wind up having to do the job all by yourself.
This is no longer a wild frontier, there are now big cities, but some of that frontier feminism has stuck around. There’s a reason why we saw womens right to vote happen first in places like Wyoming and Utah and I think it’s an interesting discussion.
The fact that Iowa, Mississippi, Vermont, and Delaware have never elected women to government positions is a shame but it is not on the same level of concern as the profound East Coast sexism. That is because news from those four states is not beamed all over the country and the whole world as representing the views of American citizens. The New York/DC sexist news is shoved down all our throats. You can not imagine how off and backward it sounds in comparison with the local coverage we are used to.
It doesn’t matter where the people who read the news are from. They are just talking heads, spokespeople, they read what they are handed with a Stepford smile or they are replaced. The tone of the news is set by the media companies and the old white men who run them from New York. As women we need to demand the consumer rights to be able to refuse to have their crap beamed into our homes over cable connections that we pay to rent and we need to be able to sign up for only the channels we choose without having payment for sexist channels extorted from us. I want to see East Coast people be forced to pay for several Seattle, Portland or Vancouver BC news channels on their basic cable service. It will give them some much needed perspective whether they like it or not.
I give up on you, Bes. Do you read the comments on our local news websites? Still sexist, still mocking women, including the Gov & Senators. In Washington, our US Reps include 1 female out of 9. Our state legislature is majority male. Currently there actually do exist more female legislators on the East Coast, including female governors. I’m glad you think everything is peachy out here, but it ain’t so.
I also don’t care about flak for supporting only women like the Black Panthers support only black candidates. Facts:
1) I don’t recall any women walking around carrying billy clubs and threatening people into voting for Hillary OR Sarah.
2) There have been black candidates before, but those thugs didn’t seem so motivated to dress up for Halloween and carry weapons when their candidates were named Shirley or Carole.
Those to me are some pretty decisive differences. Women only. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, lesbian … I don’t care. Women only.
yes exactly. What bothers me is that, as we move farther and farther away from our native past, where women’s ingenuity produced the majority of all technological advances, and men have since been able to convince htemselves otherwise, and now we live in a society of mass production, moving toward extinction, where men no longer have to rely on women’s intelligence, the seemingly inherent misogyny of men is finding new ground, and is, actually what is alarming about the news coverage etc. It’s the mindset behind the words. With social and environmental devastation, pressures, what we are looking toward in the future is a female holocaust.
Women can’t trust anybody. Not their husbands, not the police who arrest women under false or real warrants, in order beat and rape them, on video, and are not punished, and they plan this, yet crimes by women face a huge desire to punish severely. The level of men’s delusion toward women and abject hatred was evident in these primaries..You just can’t explain the viscious, illogical and frenzied behavior shown by men.
It’s very strange. I’ve seen racism by women but it’s almost always to fit into a male group or to gain male approval. I’m just not convinced that women have this problem men have, of you know, being a normal human being. It’s hard to say we are progressing either. I mean i can think of times in history where women had normal status. I think the term used by the author of the media’s willfull behavior to drive to “frenzy” the public is perfect. I just don’t understand how the public could be as stupid as to believe the paint by number portrayal of Palin, the myths, the lies, the random bulls*t.I mean, the cost of her wardrobe? And lies about burning books and rape kits? Seriously? Frenzied public is scary. The ease at which the public is led, to doing terrible things or acting on weird beliefs.
Patti: There is a major difference between sexist rants in the comments section of local news and sexist rants by the talking heads of corporate media. For one thing anyone can post in most comments sections so that gives feminists a chance to drown out the misogynist twits in the comments section if they care to waste their time in a pissing match with idiots no one reads. That is not the case with corporate media, there is no authentic womens voice and there won’t be soon because gatekeeping new people and new ideas out of the market place is the most used business practice of corporate media.
That said I have experimented with CNNs comments section and they do filter out feminist political views. In fact I have never had a comment published on CNN unless it was a fake liberal sounding kiss-ass comment to test if they were screening and skewing their comments. They filtered out pro Hillary and anti Obama comments in 2008.
I don’t subscribe to the idea that all misogyny must be wiped out before women achieve equality. There is always going to be some nut cases and we aren’t responsible for them giving up their hatred. Also we have to face the fact that some men are really unattractive for physical or personality reasons and no women are going to associate with them except for pay and those men are naturally very very bitter. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is, and it in no way affects our accomplishments.
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