Sexism

I know, I know, she is no Rachel Maddow (the one with the sultry voice and totally sapphic resume), and most certainly couldn't measure up to my official platonic boo, Donna Brazzille. But Lady Almighty,  Campbell Brown (btw, a totally "top" name for a girl if you ask me) totally knows how to make a feminist squeal with delight.

You can read the whole transcript at CNN.com :

I call upon the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower who will wilt at any moment.

This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong, she is tough, she is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff.

[...]

I was having a short discussion the other day on Twitter about sexism and it seems that Natasha Chart over at MyDD, that bastion of feminism, has taken it out of context to make a point about sexism.

Lovely.

This is the comment I left :

So let me get this straight : You take a comment that was part of a whole conversation about how our culture imposes the tyranny of homogeneity instead of respecting difference and looking at diversity as an asset and you twist it to prove a point about sexism?

that conversation was about how aggressiveness and violence are not necessarily nature. that as a mother of two boys and someone who has taken care of many of my friends girls, i can see how their energies can by nature, be vastly different.

the issue is of holding male energy as the standard of what is good and by assertion, female energy being bad or weak. just as how whiteness is held up as the standard and everything that is not "white" then becomes diminished, poor, disadvantaged, underdeveloped, or plain old not good enough.

but you took that one quote and you built a whole post about how everything about this campaign was sexist attacks that cost Clinton the nomination.

we've had this conversation before online and am going to say it again, it's not the reason why. there's 100 reasons, none having to do with sexism, that cost Hillary Clinton the nomination.

get over it.

and, by the way, this link was sent to me. if you're going to quote me, have the tact next time of emailing me the link.

i take cause with how you present my words here.

there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING wrong not wanting to [be] like men and finding power in that.

I had to use Summize to go back on the twitts of yesterday and find the conversations I was having. I can identify 6 different conversations all revolving around different discussions of sexism.

One of them was with Shannon McKarney of EcoChic, who had this to say :

I wrote that piece last year+believe it more strongly now. Women have to become more "male" to be successful

That's where the whole discussion of homogeneity vs. difference started. That's where I ssaid that I strongly disagree with women needing to be like men to be successful just as I strongly believe this to be one of those sticking points for a lot of feminists of color.

The whole discussion of women vs. men pits oppressed people in many communities of color against each other. Yes, colored men can be sexist and even ruthlessly misogynistic but is that the root of our problems or is it a symptom of a larger structure of violence and exploitation that women and men of color need to unite against?

The traditional marriage ceremony in Western Culture ends with the bride carried over the threshold by the husband. How many modern couples realize that this ancient custom symbolizes rape and the unwilling capture of women for breeding purposes.

The myth of the founding of ancient Rome included the so-called "Rape of the Sabine Women" where women from a neighboring community were forcibly captured and forced to join the nascent Roman polity. These women were not, according to tradition, given any choice in the matter, but were the founding women of Rome's aristocricy.

The custom of carrying the bride over the threshold dates back to this ancient Roman myth. It is meant to symbolize the UNWILLINGNESS of the woman in the marriage. To quote from the Chronicle of the Roman Republic by Philip Matyszak:

To symbolize the fact that their first brides did not come willingly, later Roman men carried their brides into their new homes--a tradition continued in Western countries today.

I bet few couples today who participate in this ancient custom realize that the symbolism is the unwillingness and rape of the women forced (according to legend) to participate in the founding of ancient Rome.

First off, I really want to know what kind of a hand-off Hillary Clinton promised to Ferraro if she became the nominee and eventual President of the United States. The woman has gone beyond the deep end with her one-woman Oppression Olympics. She is so determined to prove that the Democratic party is littered with women haters that she's hoodwinked some rich women to pay for a "study" that'll prove her point :

In response, a group of women - from corporate executives to academics to members of the media - have requested that the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University and others conduct a study, which we will pay for if necessary, to determine three things.

First, whether either the Clinton or Obama campaign engaged in sexism and racism; second, whether the media treated Clinton fairly or unfairly; and third whether certain members of the media crossed an ethical line when they changed the definition of journalist from reporter and commentator to strategist and promoter of a candidate. And if they did to suggest ethical guidelines which the industry might adopt.

First off, even though I don't agree with her some of her itemizations, Melissa McEwan has the sexism in the media covered. Yet I think it was either Gallup, Rassmussen or Pew who did already studies about whether the candidates have been treated fairly by the media. Guess who actually gets more passes by the media than other candidates? Racism? Oh lord, just go to Baratunde's wiki, please. And last, what a fucking straw man. Hello, let's page Jay Rosen, so he can school you in one or two things about journalism, especially what journalists are really all about.

Here's what I want to know from Geraldine Ferraro, who was in Clinton's finance committe : Where did most of the $100 million go?