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Sexism persists during election season

By Kyle Goodall on October 20, 2010 3:00 am in Columns / 8 comments

 

With the election season in full effect, gender issues and questions of sexism are still at the forefront.

National Public Radio published the article on www.npr.org Tuesday, called “Candidates’ Racy Photos Raise Sexism, Privacy Issues,” focusing mainly on Krystal Ball, a Virginia Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Congress. Controversy and criticism have surrounded Ball, due to racy photos released of her from a Christmas party six years ago.

The article got me thinking about the roles America has set for women.

It frustrates me that in 2010, 90 years after women were granted suffrage, that women are still brought down by the gender roles assigned to them, and society’s expectation of their subordination.

As a gay male, I am familiar with secondary citizenship. I have less protection under the law and fewer privileges than my heterosexual friends.

Women are still secondary citizens too. Society has decided that they must be “appropriate” by playing subordinate roles to men, and enforces stricter double standards for women.

Of course, women are very successful within and outside of their traditional roles, but their work is still undervalued.

Society values men as workers, talkers and doers much more than it values women in these roles. Men are paid more for it too.

Last year’s gender pay gap, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, was an 80 percent women’s-to-men’s earnings. It is not the 62 percent gap in 1979, but it is an outstanding 20 percent pay that women in America are owed.

Times have not changed.

It offends me that I still hear guys in residence halls bragging about how many girls they have slept with, but deplore females who happen to show any signs of sexuality, bombarding them with derogatory names.

It offends me that women in power take more heat than any male in the same position. I remember female bus drivers and lunch workers in middle and high school being called cruel, obscene names whenever they exercised any authority. Males, on the other hand, were left unscathed.

Ball is reprimanded by the media for suggestive photos from years past, but Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown posing naked for Cosmopolitan’s centerfold is not as shocking?

It has been 90 years. I think it is time there be a discourse about the sexism and gender inequality that is still at large.

 

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  • Michmediaperson

    So, Kyle, you say women are still secondary citizens.

    So, if we Republicans nominate and run Sarah Palin for President in November, 2012 and she loses to Barack Obama……………we can then say, it's socialists, liberals and Democrats who treat women as secondary citizens?

    Also, you talk about the salary gap. That's fair. So, the TV Camera male guy who works the camera on Oprah's TV show, should make the same amount of money as Oprah. Right?
    Equal pay for the genders right?

  • Yup

    I wish there was a way to flag this comment as exceedingly stupid.

  • Third Wave Feminist

    Good article, Kyle! There is definitely a double standard in regards to women and men in politics and in power. I love your insight. :)

  • For Sense

    Since when does nominating someone for office has anything to do with whether women are treated as second-class citizens? McCain tried to get women to vote for him by picking a woman. And a real conservative, at that (i.e. someone who doesn't quite understand issues).

    Thankfully, this great land we call America overwhelmingly rejected that cynical ploy and freely elected Obama and Biden instead. (And yes, the Obama-Biden ticket DID win, so get over it!)

    Ever heard of “equal pay FOR EQUAL WORK?” Why do you insinuate that anyone suggests we should give Oprah's cameraman as much as Oprah herself?

    Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Gerald Ford would be insulted by the lack of coherent thought that pervades their party today. To think that I myself supported Republicans in the past…

  • Mbalenhle Gwacela

    @ Michemediaperson…Oprah and the camera man have different QUALIFICATIONS. you cannot allow the manager of a restaurant and the waiter to get equal pay cheques now do we?? What Kyle meant was that a male and a female of the same levels of qualifications are not equal when it comes to money. Its that simple. and true.

  • Is Glen Beck a terrorist?

    Check his(?) comment history; this is just the tip of the iceberg.

  • Michmediaperson

    Would anyone who has commented or even Kyle please answer the following questions:

    1. Double standard in regards to women and men in politics. Tell me one female politician is on an equal footing with a male politician and gets paid less money? Is Jennifer Granholm, for example, making less money (unless she offered to take a paycut) than John Engler? Tell me one female politician nationwide.

    2. Tell me one CMU female employee who is doing the same job as a male and makes less money.

    3. Oprah, Letterman, Leno, Fallon, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil are all talk show hosts. Why does the female Oprah make more money than these guys if women are so discriminated against?

    4. Since Bill Clinton took advantage of Monica and many other women in Washington and Arkansas, is he guilty of the same sexual appetite as the guys in CMU residence halls bragging about how many girls they have slept with?

    5. Gender gap pay is misleading. So, the female assistants in George Ross' office in Warriner
    Hall should be paid the same as George Ross, so there is no pay gap?

    At the same time, George Ross makes less far less money than the two women presidents at Michigan and Michigan State. How could this be if there is a so-called gender pay gap?

  • Is Glen Beck a terrorist?

    “Would anyone who has commented or even Kyle please answer the following questions:

    1. Double standard in regards to women and men in politics. Tell me one female politician is on an equal footing with a male politician and gets paid less money? Is Jennifer Granholm, for example, making less money (unless she offered to take a paycut) than John Engler? Tell me one female politician nationwide.”
    Asked in bad faith. You are aware that politicians' pay is set by law, which prevents a gender pay gap in this very limited context, which isn't broadly applicable. Would you favor laws that would similarly force gender pay parity in all other contexts?

    “2. Tell me one CMU female employee who is doing the same job as a male and makes less money.”
    Look for yourself; they're public records. I guarantee (based on personal knowledge) you'd find at least one, if you'd bother to check.

    “3. Oprah, Letterman, Leno, Fallon, Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil are all talk show hosts. Why does the female Oprah make more money than these guys if women are so discriminated against?”
    Irrelevant question, likely asked in bad faith. Outliers are not representative of the population.

    “4. Since Bill Clinton took advantage of Monica and many other women in Washington and Arkansas, is he guilty of the same sexual appetite as the guys in CMU residence halls bragging about how many girls they have slept with?”
    Irrelevant question.

    “5. Gender gap pay is misleading. So, the female assistants in George Ross' office in Warriner
    Hall should be paid the same as George Ross, so there is no pay gap?”
    Asked in bad faith, and also a clearly idiotic question. “Assistant” is not the same job as “president,” nor is it even remotely comparable. (The same as Oprah isn't in a role equivalent to a cameraman.)

    “At the same time, George Ross makes less far less money than the two women presidents at Michigan and Michigan State. How could this be if there is a so-called gender pay gap? “
    Asked in bad faith. You're well aware that those institutions are not the equivalent of CMU. Consequently, the responsibilities are not equivalent, nor is the pay. It would be less unreasonable to note the disparity between what Ross is paid and what Kathy Wilbur was getting as interim president.