Bernie Sanders' Sexism Problem
Bernie Sanders is back and, if people were feeling the Bern in 2016, they might find their sentiments a bit more lukewarm in 2019. In political field filled with younger women and people of color, it’s reasonable to ask whether or not an older white man is the best person to lead the Democratic party (which he doesn’t technically belong to) forward.
That’s especially true when Bernie makes statements like, “We have got to look at candidates, you know, not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or their gender and not by their age. I mean, I think we have got to try to move us toward a non-discriminatory society which looks at people based on their abilities, based on what they stand for.”
The problem with that statement is that factors like race, gender, and sexual orientation actually do influence how seriously people are taken, and how hard they have to work to be able to rise to the same heights as heterosexual white men. What’s taken as commonplace or quirkily charming in white men is seen as objectionable in others. And Bernie has benefitted from that standard.
Yes, the straight, white, older men have had been at such a disadvantage all these years. Poor baby. FFS
"We have got to look at candidates not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or gender and not by their age.” BS https://t.co/xpU3eRqYJG- Mo Gaffney (@mogaffney) February 19, 2019
You can see that just from comparing the treatment of female candidates to Sanders himself. While Sanders' unkempt hair is seen as a fun trademark, Hillary Clinton’s signature coif was enough to infuriate some people, like Martin Shekreli, whose comments on it got him thrown in jail.
When Bernie Sanders eats, he's met with applause. When Kristin Gillibrand does it, it’s proof that she’s “contrived and opportunistic.”
Is there anything Gillibrand has done that is not contrived and opportunistic? I ask the question seriously. Replies welcome. https://t.co/T3EEYdGBD2
- Frank Rich (@frankrichny) February 10, 2019
Bernie Sander’s love life is seen as a wonderful part of what defined his beliefs, whereas Kamala Harris' dating history-and seemingly the fact that she dated at all-is seen as proof that she’s a gold digger. If you think for a second that a female candidate or a person of color who has been married twice and had a child with another partner-as Bernie has-would not be treated extremely harshly, if not seen as being ineligible to run altogether, well, I have a bridge to sell you.
Bernie Sanders seems to feel those double standards can just be overlooked, even when sexism has clearly manifested in his own campaign. And not just when his surrogates called his opponent a “democratic whore.” According to The New York Times, one of Bernie’s delegates claimed in an email that within his campaign, “There was an entire wave of rotten sexual harassment that seemingly was never dealt with.”
When women who worked for him came forward to discuss how they were paid less and experienced sexual harassment, Bernie initially replied, “I was a little bit busy running around the country” and seemingly couldn’t be expected to know about staff complaints. Bernie now seems to be trying to discuss those issues, but, frankly, after his female staffers came forward to talk to The New York Times, it would be impossible for any candidate not to do so. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have been his instinct before then.
That’s in keeping with someone who claimed, “women’s issues were a distraction.” And while many male candidates for President might have felt that way, this year is filled with women who don’t. Women who have a lived experience of “women’s issues” are very willing to talk about them proudly. Kirstin Gillibrand has pledged to make women’s issues the focus of her campaign and wants to “fight for other people’s kids as hard as I fight for my own.” Kamala Harris has stated that, “It's a woman's issue to care about climate change. It's a woman's issue to want comprehensive immigration reform. It's a woman's issue to think about criminal justice reform. It's a woman's issue to care about reproductive healthcare and the Affordable Care Act. It's a woman's issue to care about so many of these things.” Elizabeth Warren, who offers many similar progressive policies to Bernie, has introduced a universal childcare proposal and discussed how hard it was for her to find childcare while she was a working mom.
Bernie may think that you can elect a candidate without considering their gender, but to many of us, it’s clear that men like Bernie overlook the pressures that women are made to deal with because of their gender. These men simply don’t seem to feel that the problems women experience are as real as the problems they and other men who look like them experience.
But they are. They’re not a distraction. They merit the same level of serious consideration.
Up until now, many women have spent all of history downplaying those concerns. This might finally be the year where we don’t have to, and the candidate we vote for doesn’t have to either.
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