At least that's what the Democratic party leaders seem to think. Ryan Lizza discusses their attempts to match, swagger-for-swagger, Republicans' caricature of masculinity:
The members of this new faction, which helped the Democrats expand into majority status, stand out not for their ideology or racial background but for their carefully cultivated masculinity.“As much as the policy positions is the background and character of these Democrats,� says John Lapp, the former executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who helped recruit this new breed of candidate. “So we went to C.I.A. agents, F.B.I. agents, N.F.L. quarterbacks, sheriffs, Iraq war vets. These are red-blooded Americans who are tough.�
Have they retained Harvey Mansfield as a consultant? Lizza asks, "If a party measures its candidates by whether they wear a uniform, carry a gun or simply look tough — does it invite the public and press to apply that standard to all the party’s leaders?" Sure, it invites the public and the press to apply that standard to all the party's male leaders. And it invites them to apply a standard of femininity to the party's female leaders.
This cardboard-cutout view of gender means there's no way for female politicians to prove their "toughness" on a surface level, because that's a trait society is only comfortable associating with men. If you're a dude, you prove you're a "red-blooded American" by quarterbacking a football team, you prove you're "tough" with a tour in Iraq, you prove you're a no-nonsense by sporting a flat-top buzz cut. If you're a woman, you certainly can't do those things and still be considered electable. (Well, maybe Iraq is OK. But you'll have to talk a lot about how you missed your kids while you were away.) You can't prove "toughness" by talking about reproductive rights (those women who raise money for Emily's List? Total pussies) or about better health care policy. Nope, you need a gun, a dick and some balls to show you've got what it takes.
Women politicians must prove they'll be good leaders being just as tough as the guys, but by only talking up their nurturing, feminine credentials (five beautiful grandkids!) or about how women can "clean up" the halls of Congress, etc. Because when women do try to exhibit "toughness" on a surface level, the same way male politicians do, they inevitably make the party and the voters uncomfortable. They're called a ball-busting bitches and often seen as whiny and attention-grabbing -- not truly "tough."
If your actions don't fit the perfect either/or gender mold -- like if you are a powerful Democrat who bluntly calls out the president on his bullshit, but you happen to (gasp!) have a vagina -- your gender-role-defying actions simply get left out of articles like Lizza's. James Webb gets props for his aggressiveness because he picked a fight with Bush at a White House reception. But all of Pelosi's hard-nosed quotes about Bush are completely nullified by her decision to wear pearls. Sorry, honey. Can't have it both ways.
Back in March, we listened to Rahm Emanuel (who used to be a ballet dancer before he took to politically enforcing the stereotypical gender binary) declare that we need more nurturers in office. So the influx of "masculine" Dems is only half of the picture. This is really about buying into the idea that America can only be a safe and prosperous place when our male leaders are manly and our female leaders are womanly.
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Anyone who claims you cannot be assertive and wear pearls has never seen a litigator in pearls tap dance on the head of opposing counsel, or more rarely, a judge in pearls take a lawyer before her to task. It has been done, I assure you.
Plus, guys can pull off pearls just fine, just ask Barbara Bush.
Oooooooh, norbiz, BURN!!
I sadly watched these stereotypes play out in Georgia's Senate race two years ago. The white male candidate (Johnny Isakson) had done something suspect in the past. His black female opponent (Denise Majette) brought it up and he declined to comment, citing Majette's "unladylike" behavior (aka citing matters of public record and asking him to explain his conduct).
I was hoping the implied racism/sexism wasn't more broadly spread...
While I respect the challenge both to Lizza's binary gender worldview and his presumption that a stereotypically male hardass is what the American people both define and desire as "tough", I get the impression that dirty play shocks the conscience of this blog.
When, for example, liberal feminist Jane Hamsher attacks conservative Kate O'Bierne of NRO using an offensive metaphor involving "60 grit" sandpaper and O'Bierne's anatomy, Hamsher doesn't receive the treatment meted out to Lizza. Why? That's "fair dirty" against a conservative.
Feministing is absolutely not responsible for Hamsher or Lizza , but who really insulted women worse (and merits the rant more) - Lizza or Hamsher?
I never read FDL, TheCrab, so I really wouldn't know, and I don't like to get caught in blog wars, so I'm not going to read your link.
If I go deep-sea diving for my own pearls and then turn them into a necklace, can I be tough? What if I had to fight off a giant squid with nothing but my wits and a sharp knife? Then can I be tough, even though I have soft, squishy female bits?
I don't think anyone on the feminist blogosphere cares much for Firedoglake anymore. Coming to think of it, Firedoglake pulled away from other female blogs mostly because Jane Hamsher took Kos's side on every liberal versus Democrat kerfuffle. Personally, I think it's useful only in that it lets shrill Democrats vent in a space where their words don't have that much of an impact on things.
I don't read Firedoglake. If the author was trying to say that Kate O'Brien has a 60-grit crotch, then I'd have to say I'm more confused than offended. I don't get the joke.
Cheers,
TH
You gotta love it when a derailer calls his shot like that.
I'm almost encouraged by the fact that the quotes made against Pelosi didn't even mention her being female. They just dismiss her as a "partisan Bush-hater," relying on the same old "no one must question teh Great Leader" bullshit premise they'd use on a male politician. So I guess that's a sort of equality...in that they hate male and female Democrats equally.