Chicago Tribune Columnist John Kass Crowns Lisa Madigan “Princess”
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the opinion side of The Chicago Tribune really needs to stop treating Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan like a child. We already called them out on their sexism in March, when cartoonist Scott Stantis repeatedly drew Madigan as a little girl being led around by her father, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and Chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, Michael Madigan.
This time, the offending party is Tribune columnist John Kass, whose elaborate Game of Thrones metaphor goes too far to demean Madigan as “Princess Lisa.” We get it; they’re a political dynasty, Game of Thrones is about a political dynasty, it’s a seemingly obvious connection. But “Princess Lisa?” Really? Is that an appropriate way to refer to the 46-year-old, former Senator, and current (three-time) Attorney General? We don’t think so.
John Kass, calling Lisa Madigan “Princess” is sexist and we’d figure you might know that—remember how everyone said Herman Cain was sexist for calling Nancy Pelosi “Princess Nancy.” That made national news, John.
But maybe you wanted to use a sexist term because as our research has shown that sexist remarks are far more detrimental to women in politics than actual criticism of their policies. So maybe you knew that using a sexist moniker would detract from her credibility as a politician. You aren’t going after her record or her work as Attorney General of Illinois. You are just engaging in sexist name-calling. All for the sake of a metaphor.
CC image courtesy of Omnitographer on Flickr
Published by Allison Adams on 06/05/2013