Re-defining Sexism

sex-ism: noun. When a woman is dissing the credentials of another woman, and a man doesn’t like it.

For a few days, journalists have been dissecting what little information they have on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Even National Public Radio, which tends to shy away from personal information about public candidates (in comparison to cable news), has been asking several people about Palin’s family. “Man on the street” interviews have produced several women who believe Gov. Palin could not possibly accomplish the globe-trotting, highly-stressful mission of being vice president with five children, a pregnant teenager and a baby with mental disabilities. 

The response of several male Republican strategists has been to label that view sexism, despite the fact that these women are usually working mothers who can’t imagine raising such a large, dynamic brood while working in the unfathomably demanding, public job of executive office. “No one says that Obama will be a bad father by being president,” the pundits say, regardless of the fact that Obama has only two children, and they are both old enough to understand a bit of what’s going on.

We have men calling women sexist, when those women are making comments about another woman based on how they’d feel in her shoes. This picture becomes even less clear when looking back at the Hillary Clinton campaign. By definition, “prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination” were rampant, though often underhanded and expelled from the side of the mouth. I never heard a man standing up for Clinton, even as women cried foul up and down every time Clinton was harassed – for example – for showing emotion. It’s a weakness in women, and a sign of depth of character in men. Without rational or reasonable explanation, this idea has stuck.

Men aren’t the only ones who can be sexist, but they also aren’t the only judges of what is and what is not a sexist remark. It is unfair to throw that back at a woman to silence her concerns, especially when it is culturally taboo to challenge charges of racism or sexism. But the pundits and strategists must know that.