At a recent campaign rally, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, tried to quash a narrative that some people can’t drop. A woman at the rally asked the candidate about reported divisions between Bachmann and Sarah
“They want to see two girls come together and have a mud-wrestling fight,” she replied. “And I’m not going to give it to them.”
Unfortunately, Bachmann campaign adviser Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican operative, had already printed tickets to the mud match. Within days of being hired, Rollins was publicly arguing that his candidate was more substantive than Palin. Fair enough; elections are competitions, after all. But Rollins found a particularly unhelpful way to make his case.
“People are going to say, ‘I gotta make a choice and go with the intelligent woman who’s every bit as attractive,’ ” he said.
Rollins went right for the sexist underbelly of American politics, emphasizing the attractiveness of the two female politicians in a way that no male candidate ever experiences.
The number of women in public office has increased dramatically in recent decades. In 1984, when Rep. Geraldine Ferraro was tapped to be the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, there were 22 women in the House and two in the Senate.
Today, there are 55 women in the House and 17 in the Senate, along with six governors. Hillary Clinton broke the glass ceiling in presidential politics in 2008 with a viable campaign that probably would have succeeded but for the tsunami of Barack Obama.
The overt sexism that Ferraro encountered — did she have the guts to pull the nuclear trigger? — has thankfully passed. But the unholy preoccupation with a female politician’s looks, hair, clothes and more persists. Who is she married to? How will she find time to raise her children? Is she too assertive?
Clinton has experienced all the sexism and ambivalence American politics has to offer. Her 2008 campaign sometimes seemed as much about pantsuits and hairstyles as her position on Iraq. Her sex appeal was considered fair game for all manner of jokes.
With more women winning elections, you would think it would have become easier to talk about female politicians without the conversation devolving into crude stereotypes. Apparently not.
On “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace asked Bachmann whether she is “a flake.” Would any similarly prominent male politician be asked that question? If a woman inadvertently fuels the catty stereotype, the media all but rejoice.
The slights, slurs and sexism faced by female candidates aren’t over. Rollins did his attractive boss no favors by injecting attractiveness into the equation for amassing Republican delegates for the 2012 nomination.
Still, progress for women is real. When professional political hacks say Bachmann can’t win the presidency, it’s not because of her looks or her sex. It’s because of her far-out ideas, including calling for an end to most environmental regulations, voting against a ban on job discrimination based on sexual orientation and seeking probes to expose members of Congress who are anti-American. There’s also her shaky grasp of American history and icons. Bachmann is certainly a long shot for the White House. But it’s not because she’s a woman. Thanks for that, Hillary. You go girl.
