Vocativ on Wednesday took note of the deluge of woman-hating tweets and Facebook entries directed at Foxaganda’s Megyn Kelly after Donald Trump announced he wouldn’t participate in Thursday’s debate because of her. Leigh Cuen and Jishai Evers wrote:
Looking at 80,000 tweets directed at Kelly’s official Twitter handle from Tuesday to Wednesday morning—as well as close to 1,200 comments posted on her Facebook page over the last month—a Vocativ data analysis showed that in both data sets, Trump’s supporters are trolling the anchor. Hard. Thousands of critics, who largely appear to be on Team Trump, have flooded Kelly’s Twitter and Facebook accounts since Tuesday with offensive comments, calling her a “bimbo” and a “whore” and demanding that she not moderate the debate, which will be the last before the Iowa caucus on February 1.
Now, Megyn Kelly is, like most of the crew at Foxaganda, horrible. I don’t like her, her lies, her propaganda or her politics.
But whatever her views, attacking one woman with sexist slurs is an attack on all women.
It’s no surprise, of course, that Trump supporters would take this approach. We expect this. After all, Trump himself is a dyed-in-the-wool sexist, and his attacks on Kelly show his followers how to behave.
Unfortunately, sexist attacks on women in social media are not merely the province of right-wing troglodytes. Such attacks have been directed at plenty of liberal women on Twitter and Facebook by bullies, punks, some of whom dare to mislabel themselves progressives.
A chart on sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton would have a lot bigger numbers than the one Vocativ did on Kelly. And those sexist attacks extend to some of her more prominent female supporters. They don’t all come from Republicans or unaffiliated right-wingers. Some of them are the product of people who say they are Bernie supporters. That doesn’t mean all of them are actually Bernie supporters; I’ll wager most of them are not. Campaigns, after all, are cesspools of ratfucking.
But some of these misogynists support who they say they do. And they are a fucking disgrace.
I am a supporter of Bernie Sanders for president and have been for nearly 14 months. As you would expect, I have a number of criticisms of Hillary (that are not in any way driven by right-wing talking points). But the sexist slurs and sexist tropes laid on her sicken me.
They aren’t just attacks against Hillary, but against my stepdaughter, my grand-daughters, my daughter-in-law and every other woman in my life. They are, as noted, an attack on every woman. And each time they pop up, we should blast those who make them, no matter what other point of view they may hold, no matter what candidate they support (or claim to).
One more note. While the sexist attacks contained in tweets and Facebook comments are often brazen, they contribute to a less obvious undercurrent of sexism.
Laura Bates, founder of The Everyday Sexism Project, writes of the sexist attacks on Kelly:
This is not a spat, a drama, a feud or a quibble. This is the relentless misogynistic abuse of a high-profile woman doing her job.
The problem with a woman being attacked in such a way on a national stage is that it tends to have a ripple effect, causing her also to experience a range of other sexist repercussions. For example, while commenting on the issue, Doug Gross, an Iowa Republican strategist unaffiliated with any particular campaign, said: “It’s the only Republican debate in our state and he’s not even going to show up because he’s afraid of a woman reporter? What kind of a wimp is this?” Trump’s chief rival, Texas senator Ted Cruz seemed to jump on the same bandwagon, albeit more subtly, offering to debate Trump one-on-one—“If Donald is afraid of Megyn Kelly.” The mocking of Trump for being “afraid” of Kelly undermines her professional status by suggesting that a female reporter is a less formidable interviewer than her male peers.
During primary season, we can expect to see more brazen as well as more subtle sexist attacks against Hillary (and, you can be sure, every other woman running for public office). If Hillary wins the nomination, there will be more still. We progressives have an obligation to object vigorously every. single. time.