The election and Gender Equality

ally

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 5:32 am

I just needed to vent about this.
On election night (and also in the follow up) - it has been driving me insane that the news sites kept posting pictures of women crying.
Also before Hillary's speech as it was being delayed - the newscasters discussed whether she would cry.
It just drives me crazy that at the same time as we talk about equality and glass ceilings, these stereotypes are propogated - and noone even seems to notice its happening.

*end of vent*

eschaya

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:29 am

Unfortunately, there were a decent number of people voting for Hillary solely on the basis of her second X chromosome. This is a shame, because the pinnacle of gender equality should be the ability to vote for a candidate, not on the basis of her gender, but exclusively in terms of his/her qualifications and political platform.

sky

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:44 am

There was a video of a CNN reporter asking a women who just voted if she was excited for the possiblity of the first female president. The reporter was shocked when she got a 'NO'.
I think some were very focused on the gender rather than the person. I think Gender equality is for seeing the person as they are - rather then their gender.

Last edited by sky on Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:46 am; edited 1 time in total

Lady Bug

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:45 am

ally wrote:

Gender differences as in, women are big cry babies?

Women in general tend to be more connected to their emotional side and yes, cry more easily.

There are exceptions in either direction, but as a generalization, this tends to hold true.

Do you believe that men and women are completely the same besides for the aiver/private part difference?

ally

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:54 am

Lady Bug wrote:

I think that this tendency is strongly influenced by "nurture" more than nature.
And this is reinforced by cherry picking images of crying women to show disappointed supporters.
When they panned the room, you think that it was just a mess of crying women and stone faced men?

etky

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:54 am

eschaya wrote:

Yes, but I think that gender was not THE defining aspect of this campaign.
It was dwarfed by other considerations - unfortunately not all of them were substantive either.
I kind of feel actually that the fact that the gender card, in regard to the candidates, was underplayed was one of the more positive aspects of this contentious campaign.
I think it could have been much worse in terms of s-xist stereotyping.

PinkFridge

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:55 am

eschaya wrote:

People used to say that about color too.
(This has nothing to do with affirmative action. I support it when used well. Just saying in theory.)

etky

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 6:59 am

ally wrote:

I agree that there could have been some intentional perpetuation of sterotypes, but regarding crying in particular, I think there is a real basis to the notion that overall women cry more readily than men.
Hormones play a huge part in this propensity.

sweetpotato

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 7:03 am

ally wrote:

I agree with what you're saying, but I saw a lot of men crying too (Tim Kaine was choked up, Stephen Colbert had tears in his eyes, a number of other male newscasters as well).

Crying is healthy and maybe by showing it, we will normalize it as a human response for both men and women.

ally

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 7:04 am

etky wrote:

I also don't think it was the defining aspect of this campaign or that her being a woman was a big part of why she lost (although I'm sure there is some component there).

BUT, over the years she surely had to work so much harder to get to where she is because of her gender. This really hit me in her concession speech.

youngishbear

Thu, Nov 10 2016, 7:07 am

eschaya wrote:

I am constantly being told that liberals view the world from the rosy perspective of how it should be, rather than what it is.

This kind of talk about gender equality seems to be an example of conservatives imagining things to be better than they are. Yes, people should, but too many of them don't.

Maybe I am not seeing the big picture because in my own corner of the world misogyny is alive and well, but I think it's wishful thinking to say that people are gender-neutral when it comes to issues of power and leadership.

I didn't support Hillary only because of her gender, but I was very excited about the ramifications of it actually happening. That is definitely a contributing factor to my disappointment now, but it's minor in light of the bigger issue of a egomaniac in the White House.