I. Am. So. Tired. Of. This.
Antonia Zerbisias in today's Star:
Politics is a dog-eat-dog world — but why do media bitch-slap women?Please, if your only reaction is to say you are not surprised and this is not new: refrain. This blog is not called Things Laura Is Surprised By. That would be a very short read indeed. Bigotry, including sexism, does not surprise me. Nevertheless, it irritates the crap outta me.
This month and last, on Vancouver radio and again in a newspaper interview, Norman Spector laid the B-word on Belinda Stronach, a twice-elected MP (Newmarket-Aurora).
You'd think a man with a c.v. like Spector's — Globe and Mail columnist, blogger for Maclean's, former publisher of the Jerusalem Post — could come up with a better epithet.
But he insisted it was apt.
"I think it's the perfect choice of word that the Oxford English dictionary describes as 'malicious or treacherous,'" he told the Globe's Gloria Galloway. "So I think as an analyst of politics, I chose the right word."
Well, not according to my Oxford: it leads off with "female dog" and never mentions "treacherous" at all.
(Last week Spector served a notice of libel on Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham after she wrote that she couldn't find "treacherous" in her Oxford either. For the record, the Sun so far refuses to retract or to apologize for the column.)
A few things.
First: Isn't a dog — male, female or fixed — loyal and, by definition, not treacherous?
Second: Spector called Stronach that shortly after her former boyfriend Peter MacKay, minister of Foreign Affairs, reportedly called her a "dog" in the House of Commons. He also claimed that Stronach was the home wrecker in Tie Domi's marriage, as if he had insight into that dispute.
Third: Spector's comment was followed by a particularly crude joke by former Alberta premier Ralph Klein about Stronach.
Think dog. Think bone. Think bitch in heat.
Forget that married male politicians have been known to carry on affairs. Stronach is free and single, but her sex life is fair game for public scrutiny.
So too is her hair.
How else to explain that large colour photo of her last week in the Globe that served no apparent purpose except to present her as a newly tinted brunette?
"A dye-hard campaigner" read the caption, depicting her in London, Ont., where she was helping Liberal candidate Glen Pearson get out the vote for yesterday's federal by-election.
No mention was made of the other contenders: Conservative Dianne Haskett, the NDP's Megan Walker and Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
"He was running against three women, but he got top billing from the Globe because of Belinda Stronach dying her hair," says NDP MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina), who herself was compared to a dog by a senior Liberal official during the last election campaign. "And you wonder why only 21 per cent of the MPs in the House of Commons are women?"
Indeed, according to Equal Voice, which fights to get more women into government, Canada, with just 64 women in Parliament, ranks 42nd in the world among democracies in terms of women's national political representation.
In the U.S., where they're celebrating the record number of women elected this month, the picture isn't any better.
In January, 87 women members will take a mere 16 per cent of the 535 congressional seats.
Still, California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, expected to be voted in as Speaker of the House — which would make her second in line to replace the president, after Vice-President Dick Cheney, the highest office ever attained by a woman — has been dubbed the "Wicked Witch of the West" by pundits.
How long before New York Senator Hillary Clinton is "Wicked Witch of the East"?
Women can only hope that Pelosi and Clinton drop the House on their critics.
Former Liberal MP, now Mississauga city councillor Carolyn Parrish, has felt the media's scorn for outspoken women.
"There's a double standard," she says. "Rarely if ever do they talk about the appearance of males. Rarely if ever do they pay any attention to their loss of cool, their off-colour language.
"There are totally different yardsticks on performance. Tough women are only acceptable when they're grandmothers like (Mississauga mayor) Hazel McCallion or (former British prime minister Margaret) Thatcher."
Just look at how ousted Conservative MP Garth Turner is faring.
He's a rebel, a hero to many. He's not getting the shabby treatment Parrish did, even though her actions reflected the sentiments of many Canadians.
Understand that many women don't have a problem with the B-word. We wear "bitch" pins. We buy "bitch" T-shirts. We've made Sherry Argov's Why Men Love Bitches one of the biggest bestselling relationship books ever.
But when we think bitch, we think of strong women, women who won't take it lying down.
Trouble is, lying down is exactly how too many men in the media want us to take it.
And I am totally fucking sick of the sexist double-standard for women in politics. I just want to shout: grow up already.
25 comments:
I heard the tail end of a story on the news the other day where Belinda (as the Newmarket-Aurorans call her) was "defending" her choice to dye her hair by saying she was going grey.
Why does one have to defend that?
As far as a double standard I agree -- to some extent. Our media does pick on the male politicians when they get a "new look".
In fact, the worst treatment I can recall of a politician for an overhaul of her or his public persona including hair, speaking voice, posture, etc. was the complete ridicule Preston Manning went through when he came back from a summer of "advice". To this day you can see the endless repeats of the endless attacks on him in the syndicated comedy shows "Air Farce" and, to a lesser extent "22 Minutes".
Oh, and the comparison of Carolyn Parrish and Garth Turner is wholly unfair. Carolyn Parrish did more than speak out against policy decisions... she also complained openly to the media about the "Damn Americans", how she "Hates those bastards" and their "Coalition of the idiots". Most of this was said immediately after George Bush's re-election.
Whether or not one agrees with the sentiment, it was inappropriate for an MP. She was justly ridiculed and pushed to the margins of Canadian society.
Contrast that with Garth Turner, who, at best, disagreed with points of policy of his party. He didn't publicly ridicule anyone at home or abroad, and he has subseqently been treated considerably better by the media and the public.
Unfortunately Antonia Zerbisias is using inapt comparisons for her perfectly valid point which only serve to undermine her argument.
Our media does pick on the male politicians when they get a "new look".
That's true. I've seen that.
On the other hand, Belinda Stronach is almost never written about without using the words "blonde" and "attractive". This is no exaggeration: I watch for it and see it everywhere. So while men may occasionally get a similar treatment, women get it constantly.
Carolyn Parrish did more than speak out against policy decisions... she also complained openly to the media about the "Damn Americans", how she "Hates those bastards" and their "Coalition of the idiots"
I thought that's what Zerbisias was referring to when she said "even though her actions reflected the sentiments of many Canadians".
It's not a good comparison, though, I agree.
Nevertheless...
On the subject of Things that Irritate M@ and that Are Tangentially Related to This Post...
I've done some work (completely off the field) in soccer in Canada, and I am a big fan of all our national teams. I developed this theory -- and it is just a theory -- that the commentators (both male and female) for women's soccer make far more sexualized comments than for men's soccer. (Example: a comment on a player's "beautiful legs", made by a female commentator.)
I figure even a limited study (e.g. looking at the language from two men's and two women's matches on the same network) would easily point out this sexism in sport. I was surprised to find that, in an online discussion on the subject, almost no one agreed with me, and I've never had the time or energy to actually perform the study myself. But I'm pretty sure my hypothesis would be borne out. I often think of pitching it to a magazine or journal about women in sport, but I have neither the academic background nor the research I would need to make this a good article.
To drag this back to the point, I was talking to the mother of one of our women's national team players, and she pointed out to me that almost every successful female athlete has one or more strong male role models in her history. I suspect that the same must be true for many other male-dominated pursuits (say, science -- or politics).
That's why this is such an important subject: because we can neither understand the problem nor find solutions without understanding the role of both sexes. And while so many men deny that a problem exists, we're just not going to get too far.
M@, this is great stuff.
I'm a huge supporter of women's sport in general, and I follow coverage of it closely (often more closely than I follow the sports themselves, sad to say). But I don't watch soccer, so I couldn't comment on your impression.
In the US, with women's soccer and basketball finally coming of age - thanks to the first generation of Title IX women reaching adulthood - coverage has improved tremendously. When I compare game coverage now to, say, the way women's tennis was covered in the 70s, it's great leap forward.
That is, when it's covered. It's often wholly absent.
If you do want to write about this, you should start documenting it every chance you get. (You may already do that.)
There was a great online sports journal that would have loved this topic, called SportsJones, which I contributed to a few times. Most unfortunately, ESPN bought them out - then killed the magazine.
I will keep my eyes out for similar venues for you. You don't need an academic or research background to write about this. You know how to do research, and you know how to write - that's all you need.
Belinda Stronach is almost never written about without using the words "blonde" and "attractive". This is no exaggeration: I watch for it and see it everywhere. So while men may occasionally get a similar treatment, women get it constantly.
Agreed. And if Z. had done sufficient research about that and documented it coherently she could have made her case much more voiciferously.
As it stands, the Parrish example detracts from the debate. Not to say that her point isn't valid, it's just not well made.
Well women's national team soccer gets about as much TV coverage here as the men's (good, but not total). And Canada's regining soccer announcer, Gerry Dobson, does both men's and women's soccer, with the colour commentator changing from match to match (though it's usually a retired Canadian nat'l team player, Helen Stoumbos, doing the colour for women's matches).
But that's what surprised me. Even with a woman who knows too well the hard road top-level woman athletes have to travel, and with very experienced and intelligent commentators, the sexualized language persists.
Anyhow, yeah, I really should just put the pitch together, eh? I know most of my objections are reasons not to get off my butt. But what I meant about the research side of things is that I know that women's studies as it applies to sports is a big field, with even mainstream books being published on it. I'm not up at all on the literature and I'm a little worried that my piece would be just a gee-whiz kind of thing.
But if you do think of a good venue, let me know. It's still in my "someday I'll do this" pile of things to do.
Anyhow, yeah, I really should just put the pitch together, eh?
Yup.
I know most of my objections are reasons not to get off my butt.
Yup. :)
But what I meant about the research side of things is that I know that women's studies as it applies to sports is a big field, with even mainstream books being published on it. I'm not up at all on the literature and I'm a little worried that my piece would be just a gee-whiz kind of thing.
I understand what you're saying, but seriously, I wouldn't worry about that. Everything's a big field. You can still write (or try to write) an article about something you've noticed, something that interests you, and add to that field. There's a lot of redundancy, and that's fine, because there are so many different audiences.
But if you do think of a good venue, let me know. It's still in my "someday I'll do this" pile of things to do.
I will do. I'm always trying to think of venues for story ideas, I'll throw this in the same mental bin.
Hey, is that a pun? :)
I will do. I'm always trying to think of venues for story ideas, I'll throw this in the same mental bin.
Hey, is that a pun? :)
Not a new one. :D
Okay, I'll go dust off the old grey matter and collect my notes in case you come across a good venue.
Dang -- work!
Not a new one. :D
Oh, I can imagine. Folks whose names are also an object, or a verb, must get that all the time.
Hey wait, could there be an advantage to having a long, clunky name that everyone mispronounces?? :-)
What, you never had a teacher who said "Throw it in the Kaminker!" when you were a kid? Huh. Must be just me. :)
I'm not complaining -- you're right, there are plenty of advantages to such a short name. I often get a bonus "n" added on the end too. Yeah, it annoyed me as a kid but I'm well over it now.
And my chance to select a nom de plume is now gone! Curses!
What, you never had a teacher who said "Throw it in the Kaminker!" when you were a kid?
Hm. That must have been a drag. (X-ref Scott M's comment on Florence Nightingale Graham...)
I always envied people with one-syllable last names. Ah, how much easier my life would be if I wanted to change my name upon marriage. (Um, well, I'd have to want to get legally married first, but you get the point.)
OK folks, anyone who's reading, how do you think my last name is pronounced? Put the accented syllable or syllables in CAPS.
Redsock and mkk can't play.
I've been saying \ka-MINK-er\.
Never really thought about it, but I'd have gone with \KA-min-ker\, I guess...
I've been saying \ka-MINK-er\.
This is how it is always mispronounced. :-)
Everyone says it this way.
Never really thought about it, but I'd have gone with \KA-min-ker\, I guess...
And this is correct. It's very rare to get it right. I'm always surprised when someone guesses correctly.
It's a very annoying name to tote around. Too bad I'm so attached to my byline and will never change it. Oh well.
And this is correct. It's very rare to get it right. I'm always surprised when someone guesses correctly.
Comes with having Polish grandparents. Don't know the origins of your family name, but theirs was a three-syllable name starting with K, and the emphasis was as I placed it in their name, so I guess that's the reason for my pre-disposition.
Comes with having Polish grandparents. Don't know the origins of your family name, but theirs was a three-syllable name starting with K, and the emphasis was as I placed it in their name, so I guess that's the reason for my pre-disposition.
Ah-ha! My last name is Russian. Good thinking.
Funny, I would have pronounced it with a slight variation from the common (incorrect) pronounciation...
ka-MIN-ker
My second guess would be:
ka-MINK-ker
It would have taken me quite a few iterations to get it right...
It would have taken me quite a few iterations to get it right...
That's typical too :)
Our last name is also three syllables with the stress on the first syllable. Everyone always says it first with the stress on the second syllable. And some continue to do so even after hearing it said correctly. :-)
But, you know, if this were my biggest problem, I'd be very lucky indeed.
LOL! I have the exact opposite problem. My last name (as with most South Indian names) isn't supposed to have any emphasis. There are only 4 syllables, but all should be stressed equally. So pretty much everyone says it incorrectly. (Including myself, actually. *I* pronounce it with emphasis depending on who I'm talking to. Tis sad).
Daniel, how funny that it's the same thing!
But, you know, if this were my biggest problem, I'd be very lucky indeed.
Oh indeed. Don't get me wrong, it's not an obsession or anything. More of a lifelong joke than anything else.
My last name (as with most South Indian names) isn't supposed to have any emphasis.
Geez, I wonder how many people's names I've been mispronouncing all this time...
On the topic of treating MPs like meat, lately that "dog" Peter McKay has been getting a lot of attention.
Scott, thanks for that! It's great.
Hey, I never said Rick Mercer is never funny... :-D
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