After a certain diary traded on hot lesbian subtext with great success a couple days ago, I promised to title my next diary "LESBIAN INFERNO! New Obama/McCain Poll" just for the attention. But then I realized there was a diary inside me that was more important and more deserving of shameless gay-baiting.
And I should point out that I am gay, so I am allowed to gay-bait. If you are straight, you are not, because we both know you're homophobic, else you would be letting the gays do it with you. Jena is forgiven, because, as she acknowledged, she is so tediously heterosexual that she wouldn't recognize a sexual double-entendre if it were shoved down her throat.
Serious thoughts on sexism and racism are below the arbitrary break in structure.
Jesus, that thing is unnecessary.
As I was saying, Obama vs. Clinton is not a proxy war between racism and sexism. (I was too saying that.) Unlike with the nomination battle, this is a war that both sides have already won.
Racism wins!
Sexism wins!
Bigotry wins 2-0, everybody! It's a holocaust!
It's okay if your giddiness makes you want to jump around a bit.
But I've noticed that many commenters across the blogosphere are quick to deny the hard-fought victories of racism or sexism when they might apply to a candidate. And it's not hard to then figure out who they support.
Let's play a game. Here are three manifestations of sexism. See which ones you can spot:
A) The use of gender or sexual stereotypes.
B) The marginalization or degradation of a gender or sex.
C) The distrust, fear, or hatred of a gender or sex.
I once read a diary that claimed Hillary Clinton had become Nixon in a skirt. A commenter then asked if this was sexist. It was, I argued, because it reduced Hillary Clinton to "woman," and then further reduced "woman" to "skirt." No other interpretation seemed logical, given that Hillary doesn't even wear a skirt. "A" wins. "B" gets the boobie prize. (Hi, Jena, that was a double entendre.)
Others have used "Nixon in a pantsuit." That, too, reduces Hillary Clinton to "woman" and then further down to "women's clothing," but now the women's clothing is an unambiguous icon of transgressing outdated gender norms. Why is it that Hillary's female status is being invoked, anyway? If you need to make a Nixon analogy, wouldn't "Nixon in a donkey suit" be more to the point? And also, funnier, because donkeys are funny animals? Score another for "A."
Then there's the use of "b----." It's a word that, by its definition, refers only to women. While one might distinguish some women as b----es, and others as non-b----es, "b----" nevertheless asserts that there is something special about women that makes them worthy of the title. It is sometimes applied to men, but even then it is a way to insult men by using a term associated with women, suggesting that women are inferior and that comparisons are to be avoided. So put a "B" on the scoreboard. (Hi again, Jena.) Maybe even a "C." (That one was unintended, Jena.)
Another case study is when, at a debate, a front-running Hillary was criticized on the issues by her rivals. Hillary asserted that it was another example of men ganging up on a woman. Except that a frontrunner being tag-teamed by their rivals is so common a debate dynamic that even Tim Russert could have predicted it. But those terrible men ganging up on a woman? Apparently, Hillary pulled an "A/B" combo on the men this time.
Now let's switch it up a bit. Here's a racism game we can all play.
A) The use of racial or ethnic stereotypes.
B) The marginalization or degradation of a race or ethnicity.
C) The distrust, fear, or hatred of a race or ethnicity.
Individual references to coke-dealing and slumlords may not come from a racist place. It's hard to call a foul on any one incident, even though those fouls seem suspiciously frequent.
When Obama won South Carolina, however, dismissing him as another SC-winning-but-nomination-losing Jesse Jackson is hard to ignore. Why would someone reach back two decades to find the black dude? Wasn't John Edwards, the guy who won SC last time and yet also was not our nominee, the more obvious candidate for comparison? I mean, John was running in 2008, too. The guy was practically standing right there. Did his shiny mane blind people to his presence? "B."
And shucking and jiving is beyond a straight-faced defense. "A" and "B."
One could argue that Rev. Wright was a legitimate story. At first. Constantly haunting the TV-viewing public with his specter and even using him in attack ads against random Democratic candidates? Suddenly we had shifted from legitimate discourse to "C."
And then, as a heavily-commented diary once pointed out, there was an election article that cleverly used the word "rejigger." But you didn't fool us, Time Magazine. We can spot things like that. The next time you want to slur a black man, you'll have to use cockney rhyming slang to hide it.
All right, no points for that one.
Now, I know many people are loathe to use the term "racism." They may opt for "racial." We don't want to offend otherwise well-meaning people for their mistakes. But until references to pantsuits are commonly considered "sexual," I'll stick to my guns. That isn't to say that all people who employ or stumble into racist constructs can be fairly labeled as racist. But as that song from that musical with the gay puppets explains, everyone's a little bit racist, sometimes. And while the song may say that that's okay, I would suggest that recognizing racism is healthy, because it can lead us to improve ourselves and each other by correcting it.
The point of this diary is not to inform you that you are a racist, sexist pig, and that so are all your role models. It is to help us recognize bias when we see it, so that we may improve ourselves. So if a Hillary supporter calls something sexist, or an Obama supporter calls something racist, you can hold back the reflex to deny it. Your candidate won't lose if you do. Obama vs. Clinton is not a proxy war between racism and sexism.
Feel free to accuse others of their hate and/or deny your own obvious prejudices in the comments. I promise to join in the fun!