Is Harold Ford Sexist?
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Harold Ford, Jr., has Senate ambitions, and Kirsten Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator, stands in his way. All standard fare. Except now that the sexist taunts of the 2008 campaign are being revived in columns and a couple of new books, I have to ask: Is Ford talking about Gillibrand this way because she’s a woman?
Ford’s line on Gillibrand is that she is a patsy to the older gentleman in her party, especially Harry Reid and New York’s senior senator, Chuck Schumer: “Harry Reid will not instruct me how to vote,” he said, adding, "We have a fundamental difference on independence. We have a difference on the level, the kind and the stature of advocacy New Yorkers deserve."
What kind of stature does Harold Ford have, exactly? Last I checked, he lost a Senate race and she won. Also, it seems perfectly routine for a first-term junior senator to defer to the long-serving senior senator of her state.
Is this woman-baiting? Ford’s criticism tracks exactly the twin tropes the media uses for women: bitch or ditz, established by Amanda Fortini in New York magazine in 2008 and echoed by Anne Kornblut in her new book, Notes From the Cracked Ceiling.
Ford’s new slogan tips in that direction: “Harold Ford: nobody’s man but ours.” If the writer of the Times story had the same suspicions, he got his revenge on Ford by mentioning that he gets regular pedicures.
Photograph of Harold Ford by Brendan Smialowski.
Hanna Rosin Double X co- editor, reporter, prefer my friends live.
Comments
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Ford is talking to Gillibrand
By: candlelight | Fri, 01/15/2010 - 11:29
Ford is talking to Gillibrand "that way" because she is an opponent. Yeah she happens to be a woman, so what? Where is the sexism in his criticism?
Glaring Inaccuracy
By: Vinny L | Fri, 01/15/2010 - 07:47
"What kind of stature does Harold Ford have, exactly? Last I checked, he lost a Senate race and she won."
Ya might wanna edit that.
And I see the "sexist" weapon is coming out the holster blazing. But since I don't want Mr. Ford to run, carry on lol...
.
By: Vinny L | Fri, 01/15/2010 - 07:58
Testing..
I dont see evidence of
By: musa | Fri, 01/15/2010 - 07:05
I dont see evidence of sexism. If your logic is used against yourself, then one could ask if your opposition to Ford is racist. And since there is not one elected senator of African American heritage, and there are over a dozen female senators, and almost all senators are white except two, and there are several Jewish senators as well, then one could say that opposition to Ford without substance is racism.
Clarification
By: texasrains | Thu, 01/14/2010 - 21:50
I wouldn't say Gillibrand "won" a Senate race since she was appointed. Otherwise interesting points.
not really
By: abercrombie | Thu, 01/14/2010 - 20:28
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Bitch vs ditz
By: pampl | Thu, 01/14/2010 - 16:06
Aren't those also the two main attacks used against male politicians- accusing them of being negative or being dumb? What other options are there for attacks? The only one I can think of off-hand is being corrupt (which is euphemistically referred to as being a whore, c.f. Alan Grayson v Linda Robertson, so could also be called sexism under this kind of reasoning) and I suspect he's avoiding that line of attack for strategic reasons rather than gender ones.
Besides, anything that could remotely be considered sexist would be lethal in the Dem primary in New York. He'd have to be really, really dumb to give Gillibrand that kind of ammunition.
There's another name for it
By: XYandFine | Thu, 01/14/2010 - 15:12
Wannabee Alpha males get to the top by one-upsmanship, often in the form of put-downs (take it from a less-than-Beta male). Ford is just doing to Gillibrand what he would do to any male in the same situation (yes, rather clumsily). So, it probably shouldn't be labeled "sexist". The more proper name for it is "being a dick". Or it is it sexist for a man to be a dick to a woman, but okay to be a dick to another man?