Last night, one of Sanders’ big applause lines came when he thundered his demand that Clinton answer his question whether she would save Social Security by lifting the cap. “YES OR NO?!?!” he thundered at her:
SANDERS: Are you or are you not supporting legislation to lift the cap on taxable income and expand Social Security for 58 years and increase benefits...
CLINTON: I am...
SANDERS: — YES OR NO?!?
Let me give it to you with a different emphasis:
HIM: Are you or are you not supporting legislation to lift the cap on taxable income and expand Social Security for 58 years and increase benefits...
HER: I am...
HIM: — YES OR NO?!?
My reaction? “How astoundingly sexist and arrogant!”
There was so much male privilege wrapped up in his performance, from the constant finger-wagging and waving, to laughing, but it peaked with this.
What was the privilege?
First, the privilege was the idea that there is only one simple solution to a complex problem, and he had it. It’s pretty typical, frankly, and any female in an office has seen it. A guy gets an idea and then demands everybody agree, rather than consider other ideas, or even that a big problem may have multiple solutions. How many of us have been there, where a guy has an idea, and if a woman says, “well, I think we should think about X, too, because it’s not so simple,” he answers, “you’re trying to change the subject — answer whether you agree or not”?
Second, the privilege was the idea that he, not the moderator, gets to demand that she answer his question, and not just answer it, but answer it exactly and only in his words, and not hers. Ladies, have you ever heard this before?
Third, the privilege that he gets to interrupt her with his own barking orders. Yeah, you’ve seen this, too.
And fourth, that he gets to raise his voice at her, to use volume and height, as well as a pointing thrusting finger, to physically demand that she comply with his orders.
Do you like Sanders? Great.
Do you like Clinton? In my opinion, even better.
But do you like men who insist they have the only answer, and angrily demand women accept their answer on the man’s terms, at the man’s demand, enforced by the man’s superior physical strength? No, I don’t either.
Are you able to step aside for a moment, outside your partisan point of view, and think back to where you’ve seen exactly this dynamic play out in office after office, conference room after conference room, kitchen after kitchen, for years on end?
I am.
And it disgusts me.