This one's about Barack, not Michelle. As Susan Faludi described in The New York Times this weekend, Republicans and right-wing media are scrambling to define Barack as womanly because he doesn't hunt or want to bomb the hell out of the rest of the world.
The attacks are already under way, as is evident if one enters the words "Obama" and "effeminate" into a search engine. The effeminacy canard lurks in Mike Huckabee's imaginings of Mr. Obama tripping off a chair and diving for the floor when confronted by a gunman, and in the words of Tucker Bounds, Mr. McCain's campaign spokesman, who depicted Mr. Obama as "hysterical."News media blatherers and bloggers are taking up the theme. On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Obama "kind of a wuss"; Joe Scarborough, the morning TV talk show host, dubbed Mr. Obama's bowling style "prissy" and declared, "Americans want their president, if it's a man, to be a real man"; and Don Imus, the radio host, never one to be outdone in the sexual slur department, dubbed Mr. Obama a "sissy boy."
We've discussed this phenomenon before. Just as it's not okay to say an assertive woman is actually a man because she desires power and won't put up with your shit, it's not okay to say a man is actually a woman because he won't play dress-up in a flightsuit and codpiece. Get over the gender binary, people. Please.
One of the things I've long admired about Obama is his refusal to play the gender card. And looking at the growing support for Obama among women, it's clear that I'm not the only woman who is comfortable with male politicians who don't hew to gender stereotypes.
Predictably, some Democrats fret that Obama's refusal to play masculinity politics will mean electoral death. Faludi warns that 9/11 is still too fresh in our national psyche for us to feel comfortable electing a non-swaggering president. But I'd argue: Look how well that worked for John Kerry. I'm relieved Obama isn't playing that game again.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Obama Sexism Watch: First Woman President Edition.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/7654
I'd like to see Tucker Carlson or Don Imus tell that sh*t to Obama's face and see who exactly is the less courageous. I'm pretty sure that Barack Obama could intimidate the racism out of Don Imus through sheer intellectual force.
Oh wow, that short orange jacket is ridiculous. Everyone! Follow the Kerry link!
We can always hope that Obama chooses a VP who would shoot some one in the face... oh... wait...
Oh, that's just fucking stupid. I think Senator Clinton's near-success has proven voters don't particularly care about a President's stereotypical masculinity.
I hope anyone who has threatened to not vote Obama because of his "sexism" appreciates the weird irony, since even a man can be a victim of it.
@Rachel -- I'd love to see that conversation :-D It's funny when the bigots get all confused and flustered if wit & logic are introduced to a discussion...
What I find amusing is that it necessary to have the whole hero image to constitute a leader in the US. When you really think about it Bush is a draft dodger whose only legitimate claim to fame is when he dressed up like a fighter pilot to exude the image of fighting man. When given the chance to fight, he fled for the hills. All this attention to manly equals courageous fighter ignores the fact that most politicians have not served their country, and neither have their children. You see politicians are made up of elite circles, and they have always been able to buy their way out of the draft.
The real wimp is the asshole who dresses up in camo and orange vests and goes out shooting defenseless woodland creatures. An even bigger wimp is the shitheel who does it on a ranch stocked with animals so they can engage in fucking target practice. And then shoots his friend in the face and covers it up for 18 hours.
I'd much rather have a candidate with the balls to say he's not going to go out killing critters to prove himself to the lunkheads who want that sort of shit.
Tucker Carlson doesn't get to call anyone else a "wuss". The dude wears a bowtie. A BOWTIE!!
'nuff said.
The best way to reframe this is to paint McCain as a testosterone-addled macho loonball who'll invade innocent countries to prove the size of his genitalia ... just like the idiots in charge for the last eight years.
Those pictures were amazing. In one of my art history classes we spent a whole day talking about that damned codpiece.
So what if Senator Obama can't bowl. Warrior George can't shoot a ball into a basket ball net. He missed 4 shots out of 4 in Belfast this week. Story here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/irish-bid-farewell-to-globetrotter-who-cant-shoot-hoops-848489.html
Great post. Thanks, in particular, for reminding everybody how Kerry tried too damn hard to prove he was a macho dude, and in so doing gave the righties and easy target.
Sen. Obama has to borrow a page from Bill Clinton's playbook: Stay on message at all times, and refuse to play by the other party's rules. That's the only way to win.