What the U.S. media needs to learn about its own sexism
Just a week ago, my friend Doris and I were wondering if the Henry Gates affair would have caused such a stir if it involved an angry woman instead of an angry man. Naahh, we decided, although we didn't really have any hard evidence. "If a woman had gotten angry like Gates did, she wouldn't have gotten sympathy, she would have been called a bitch," Doris declared.
Then, as if on cue, Hillary Clinton lost her cool in Africa. A few days later, she was the butt of "Biach" jokes.
Last Thursday, for example, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough's office-wife Mika Brzezinski announced, "Coming up, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton making more news on her trip in Africa.” Joe quipped, "It was positive, right? She didn't, like, blow up, did she?" Mika flashed him her usual disapproving-wife grin, and admonished, "I think this is something important.”
Not to whine or anything, but why did the issue of race become a teachable moment for the White House after the Henry Gates affair, but no teachable moments have been extracted when the Secretary of State exhibits anger over being seen as joined at her husband's hip? When Gates lost his temper, the issue of race became the fodder for countless sympathetic news stories, but a similar flare-up of tempers and misunderstood innuendos around Hillary in Africa has spawned the uncomfortable jokes that are customary when a powerful woman gets angry.
At the risk of getting into a "who is more oppressed" fest, here's what I think: This kind of thing happens because while racism and sexism are both institutionalized in our country—woven deep into the fabric of everyday life so that we barely notice them much of the time—sexism is still more deeply institutionalized. When George McGovern announced in 2007 it would be harder to elect a woman to the White House than a black man, his sentiments were echoed by black women in politics, who said they ran into more sexism than racism on the job.
While posts about the Gates affair were—and still are--burning up Facebook and Twitter, I've seen about an eighth of the comments about Hillary, and they are mostly jokes. Even editor Tina Brown accidentally slipped into institutionalized sexism when she was trying to excuse HRC for being testy because she was tired: "Look, she's in her second week in Africa. She's hot, she feels fat..." Brown might as well have said she was menopausal, or PMS-ing.
For the record, as of Friday, Mika was still scolding and reining in Joe to "be nice to Hillary."
