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WORD COUNT
662
JUNE 25, 2008
SEXISM IS A PROMINENT
HUMAN VALUE – by Donald Kaul
Supporters of Hillary
Clinton and others have complained---think death threats---about what
they saw as the sexist news coverage Ms. Clinton got while campaigning
for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“It was pretty
appalling,” said Howard Dean chairman of the Democratic Party. “She got
treated the way a lot of women get treated their whole lives.”
To which my teen-aged
cousin might say: “Well, duh.” Of course the media’s coverage of Hillary
was sexist.
That’s the American
way. Commentators on the public airwaves have learned to be very careful
to avoid overt racism but sexism? Not so much. This is particularly true
of cable TV, which if it did not have bad taste would not have any taste
at all.
The media people deny
everything, of course. They see no sexism and no racism in their
coverage, only fair, honest and aggressive reporting. (The first thing
they teach you in journalism school is to “get it right.” The second
thing is “never admit that you didn’t.”)
Actually, it would
have been far more amazing had Hillary’s coverage not been tinged with
sexism. Sexism is the international default setting.
Name me a society or
culture of any size anywhere that is not sexist. I’m waiting.
Oh, I’ll admit that
Western Europe
has made strides in women’s rights, particularly northern
Europe,
where they’ve managed to elect a few women to head governments, but even
there true gender equality lies somewhere in the far future. And when
you look east from there---the
Middle East, the Far
East, India, Africa---forget it.
I blame religion.
Religion is the great machine societies have for passing on values and
one of the chief values religions pass on is that women are second-class
citizens, useful in their way but not to be entrusted with leadership.
And the more orthodox the religion, the more likely to be hostile to the
idea that women are the equals of men.
Thus women are denied
the priesthood or forced to sit in a segregated section of the church or
made to cover their faces in public, not allowed to drive or appear in
society unescorted or are expected to walk behind their husbands.
Why? Because the
rules are made by and for men and they know a good thing when they see
it. Men have to do some heavy lifting from time to time but for the most
part, it’s more exciting running things than being run. So they want to
keep doing it.
To that end, they
work to keep women “in their place.”
Not mothers, of
course. Mothers are sacred. Women in other roles, however, women trying
to make their way in the world get harassed, exploited, passed over,
patronized and overlooked. And that’s in the advanced (less religious)
countries don’t forget. The oppression women face in the developing
world is beyond the imagination of the rest of us.
So, yeah, Hillary
experienced sexism from people who should have known better. And some
people voted against her because she was a woman.
But not as many, I
think, as Barack Obama lost because he is black. Sexism may be more
widely held in our society, but racism goes deeper. There are people,
men and women both, who will not vote for a black man. Period. (Hillary
suggested as much during the last days of her campaign as she thrashed
around for votes.) But a lot of people voted for Obama because he is
black, just as a lot of women were thrilled to be able to vote for a
woman. Who knows how that evened out?
The reasons I
disliked Hillary had nothing to do with her womanhood. I don’t like Newt
Gingrich either and he’s not a woman. I don’t like her because I view
her as shifty and untrustworthy, a less charming version of her
husband.
If that makes me a
misogynist, so be it. I’d vote for her against John McCain though. In a
New York minute.
--
Don Kaul is a
two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing
Washington
correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he's wrong.
Email:
dkaul2@earthlink.net --
A photo of Donald Kaul is available
CLICK HERE
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