US: She’s not ‘the one’. The antidote to sexism in the race toward the presidency
Source: Huffington Post
By Emma Gray,
For those who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, it was obvious that sexism played a role in how her candidacy was received. Pundits complained about her facial expressions, her “shrill” tone and her alleged penchant for “shouting”— something that Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders also did plenty of, with much less scrutiny.
“Smile. You just had a big night,” Joe Scarborough tweeted condescendingly to Clinton at the end of a major primary night in March. Much of the media cast her as unlikable, inauthentic and untrustworthy. Often, these assessments came down to people’s gut feelings rather than tangible concerns about her experience or policies.
What was especially frustrating to Clinton supporters, however, was that her position as the one and only woman in the race made this sexism harder to call out — because sexist criticism of Clinton could easily be ascribed to her flaws as an individual, without taking into account the gender biases that influence public perception.
“I think the challenge with having only one ... is that it is easy to discount sexism in coverage, sexism from voters, sexism in the ways we view the candidates, to chalk that up to, well, that’s Hillary,” Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications for EMILY’s List and former deputy communications director for the Clinton campaign, told HuffPost. “It’s ‘there’s something about her I just don’t like.’ It’s the ‘I would support a woman, just not this one.’”
Click here to read the full article published by Huffington Post on 30 January 2018.
By Emma Gray,
For those who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, it was obvious that sexism played a role in how her candidacy was received. Pundits complained about her facial expressions, her “shrill” tone and her alleged penchant for “shouting”— something that Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders also did plenty of, with much less scrutiny.
“Smile. You just had a big night,” Joe Scarborough tweeted condescendingly to Clinton at the end of a major primary night in March. Much of the media cast her as unlikable, inauthentic and untrustworthy. Often, these assessments came down to people’s gut feelings rather than tangible concerns about her experience or policies.
What was especially frustrating to Clinton supporters, however, was that her position as the one and only woman in the race made this sexism harder to call out — because sexist criticism of Clinton could easily be ascribed to her flaws as an individual, without taking into account the gender biases that influence public perception.
“I think the challenge with having only one ... is that it is easy to discount sexism in coverage, sexism from voters, sexism in the ways we view the candidates, to chalk that up to, well, that’s Hillary,” Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications for EMILY’s List and former deputy communications director for the Clinton campaign, told HuffPost. “It’s ‘there’s something about her I just don’t like.’ It’s the ‘I would support a woman, just not this one.’”
Click here to read the full article published by Huffington Post on 30 January 2018.
