Missourah.com on Carnahan and McCaskill: JUST PLAIN SEXIST
Last week, Name It. Change It. asserted that sexism has no place in political mudslinging. Conservative blog Missouah.com apparently disagrees. The blog recently attacked Robin Carnahan, a candidate for U.S. Congress in Missouri, by posting a fake ad for opponent Roy Blunt which read, "BLUNT FOR SENATE '10: Because Missouri's already got frumpy, middle-aged blonde progressive with bad hair covered." The ad was accompanied by side-by-side pictures of Robin Carnahan and current Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill.
Why are women leaders so cruelly judged on their appearance? A few of the words in this ad could be used to describe Roy Blunt, and yet he's able to evade this type of sexist criticism. The solution to this is the rule of reversibility: Don't critique her looks if you are not going to critique his.
While the slight against these women's physical appearance is offensive in and of itself, the ad seems suggest something perhaps more disturbing: the fear that Missouri might soon have two female senators. The ad does not even mention the names of the women, but simply places their pictures next to each other while asking, "We already have one, so why would we want another?"
Women are vastly underrepresented in public office, and we need to remove sexism as an obstacle to women's electoral success. Sexist representation of female candidates in the media does not promote equality and fairness in our political process, but rather squanders it by damaging women's political standing.
