I believe we have reached an important turning point in our culture. We realize that racism is wrong. It damages all of us as human beings. It demeans the values and ideals we - as a country and certainly as progressives - strive for: fairness, equality, justice.
We can thank the many individuals and groups that have lifted us to a higher plane when it comes to acknowledging and addressing the intolerable racist attitudes and behaviors against African Americans and, to a lesser extent, other minorities.
Progressives/liberals Cannot Be Racists OR Sexists and "Progressives"
However, there is still a very big elephant in our cultural living room that must be addressed if we believe in progressive values and ideals and if we are to achieve full equality without boundaries: sexism/misogyny.
Many feminists, myself included, have been stunned by the depth and breadth of misogyny that has permeated the 2008 Democratic nomination process. Indeed, it is so entrenched that progressives have joined in, frequently engaging in tactics and talking points that were - I thought - reserved only for the most right-wing, white Republican men. This is perhaps the most profound wound. It is one that has caused me to question my own progressive values, often asking if I am perhaps "misidentified."
To make matters worse, when I try to have a civil dialogue about sexism, I am derided as being "out of touch" with reality; that it isn't sexism to refer to Hillary Clinton as "Billary"; or to accuse her of being "psycho"; or to compare her to a "scold"; or to accuse her of doing "whatever it takes to win"; or to call on her to give up her historic bid; or to refer to her as a "she-devil"; or to level the charge that if she is the vice-presidential nominee that Barack Obama should "hire a food tester" (a comparison, of course, to Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth).
Nor is it sexism, I am told, to tell women of a certain age that we are "racists" who should not be involved in politics, and that women are unimportant in this election.
I am reminded that when challenging these words and actions, we are often told in ways subtle and direct that we are "crazy" and that we do not really understand what is happening. However - and as any good Adult Child of Alcoholics knows - we are not crazy. The behavior is "crazy-making." It is part and parcel of a disease, like alcoholism, though I don't believe there is a 12-step program for sexists, for friends and family of sexists, or for adult children of sexists. Clearly, there's a huge market for such programs.
Throughout these long months I have grown increasingly angry: at the media (Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Tim Russert, Andrea Mitchell, Anderson Cooper, Gloria Borger, Jonathan Alter, Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, Ben Smith, Mike Madden, Alex Koppelman, Martin Roland, Jamal Warner, Ariana Huffington, Miklos Moutsakis, Matthew Yglesias, Howard Fineman, Joe Klein, Barbara Ehrenreich). You may notice that a fair number of these "pundits" are self-defined "progressives" in the online liberal blogosphere. I have also grown increasingly angry with my so-called progressive "brothers" and "sisters," who have themselves become "scolds" in their finger-wagging attempts to minimize and deny my (our) concerns and further alienate me/us as "crazy."
Attempting to call-out and take action against misogyny these days is like draining the ocean with a teaspoon. It is impossible. And it drains us of energy and enthusiasm to fight other, far more serious battles: pay inequity and disparity, health care inequity, economic disparity and inequity, pension inequity, a looming recession and an immediate housing foreclosure crisis - each of which have serious implications for women and families.
Yet here we are in 2008, fighting these battles of the 60s and 70s, and fighting against other progressives who seem oblivious to the damage that sexism and misogyny have done and, clearly, continue to do to us as a society and as human beings. The "progressive" movement is no stranger to sexism. After all, 70s feminism grew, in part, out of an utter disdain with and anger toward progressive men who saw women as nothing more than uteruses with typing skills, and who were oblivous then to "equality", when it came to women. Some things seem not to change, even in the midst of a presidential election campaign that is "change" itself.
A MINI NOTE: The level of hatred directed at Clinton and at women was the final straw for me. I re-registered my voting status from Democrat to Independent. At least this way my conscience is clear about the values and ideals I stand for. I have also written to Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and other DNC leaders to let them know I do not support the "values" of hatred and disenfranchisement in any form. A hard line, I know, and one that many of my friends will criticize. It certainly does not mean that I will abandon my concern and action for real progressive values.
So, today, finally, after months and months of sexist onslaught by the right and the left, comes a voice that does more in one brief article to encapsulate and articulate the depth and breadth of misogyny than perhaps any letter written to a media outlet, or any other specific anti-sexist act. And Marie Cocco (Washington Post staff writer) has done it with eloquence:
"As the Democratic nomination contest slouches toward a close, it's time to take stock of what I will not miss."
" I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan "Bros before Hos." The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet."
"I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless-steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won't miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item."
[snip]
She also does not fail to mention Randi Rhodes use of the "F" word to describe Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro, the anti-Clinton group Citizens United Not Timid, formed by Republican strategist Roger Stone, comparisons of Clinton to Alex Forrest (the "psychotic" character in 1987's "Fatal Attraction"), Chris Matthews' "she-devil" comments to describe Clinton, Jack Cafferty's (CNN) comparison of Clinton to a "scolding mother", and william Kristol's "White women are a problem, that's -- you know, we all live with that" comment on FOX News.
"I won't miss reading another treatise by a man or woman, of the left or right, who says that sexism has had not even a teeny-weeny bit of influence on the course of the Democratic campaign. To hint that sexism might possibly have had a minimal role is to play that risible 'gender card.'"
Here, finally, is my favorite part, wherein she takes on the Democratic National Committee's Howard Dean and other DNC leaders for their utter and complete failure and silence about any of the sexism and misogyny:
"Most of all, I will not miss the silence."
"I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven't publicly uttered a word of outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women's basketball team."
Cocco's closing graf speaks volumes to those of us who have spent years advancing women's rights and opportunities:
"There are many reasons Clinton is losing the nomination contest, some having to do with her strategic mistakes, others with the groundswell for "change." But for all Clinton's political blemishes, the darker stain that has been exposed is the hatred of women that is accepted as a part of our culture."
Her article brought me to tears - long pent-up and masked by the outrage at what I have witnessed and experienced daily during Clinton's historic campaign. Tears, however, cleanse toxins and free up space and energy to continue fighting the good fight. From the looks of it, we are going to need every ounce of energy and a determined redoubling of our efforts at putting an end to sexism and misogyny.
I encourage you to write a "Thank You" note to Marie Cocco (mariecocco@washpost.com). It took chutzpah for her to express such outrage, particularly since she is not a Washington Post staff writer.
UPDATE I:
Millions of women are calling for a sustained boycott of NBC/MSNBC, Chris Matthews, and other NBC "journalists" and "pundits" for the ways they have driven and fanned the misogyny. Here is their contact information:
NBC:
Steve Capus
President, NBC News
steve.capus@nbc.com
MSNBC:
Mr. Phil Griffin
Senior Vice President, News
NBC Television Network
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
(212) 664-4444
phil.griffin@nbc.com
letters@msnbc.com
Chris Matthews/Hardball:
hardball@msnbc.com
Meet the Press:
Tim Russert
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/
All Others:
You can use the appropriate contact information above for NBC or MSNBC hosts, anchors, pundits, if they are not listed specifically.
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