Last week I posted a blog entry about what I felt was sexist language coming from our president. My friend Matt Henry recently posted a response suggesting that watching peoples’ choice of nouns and pronouns carefully is going overboard. If I understand correctly, he’s positing that the fact that Bush has at least one prominent woman in his cabinet suggests Bush is not, in fact, sexist.
First of all, Condoleeza Rice has nothing to do with the Bush quote I posted. If Bush didn’t have women in his cabinet, he would be flayed in the media, so he has no choice.
The question is: deep down inside, what kinds of roles does our President think are normal roles for men and women? Of course I cannot prove this, but I believe that when Bush closes his eyes and imagines a Secretary of Defense, he sees a man. And when he closes his eyes and imagines a judge, he sees a man. And when he closes his eyes and sees a senator, he sees a man.
And when he opens his eyes and sees women in those roles, he is smart enough to not looks surprised. However, he is not smart enough to hold back the impulse to give them backrubs.
Here’s another quote from Bush, made on November 8th, regarding the new Senate Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi:
In my first act of bipartisan outreach since the election, I shared with her the names of some Republican interior decorators who can help her pick out the the new drapes for her new offices.
Granted, Bush had been making feeble jokes about democrats hanging drapes for weeks, and he probably was unaware how utterly patronizing this comment is in the context of the first woman majority leader, but that just means he’s ignorant of his sexism.
The fact is, Pelosi is the first woman majority leader in history and the first thing our president did after she was elected was make a crack about her designing her office. Do you think this is encouraging young girls to tackle serious issues? Do you think this is encouraging young boys to take their female peers seriously?
Language matters. The way we speak reflects the way we think, and I want to live in a country where all young people feel like their society is going to respect them, believe in them, and give them a fair shot.
How fair is it to say that condoleezza got the job because Bush had to give something to a female?
Did he just randomly pick a girl out of a hat? Or is Condoleezza actually qualified to hold that position?
Those are lovely straw men. :)
I didn’t say that Rice was appointed because she’s a woman, I said that Bush’s hiring practices don’t say anything about whether he is sexist or not.
Of course he didn’t pick a woman out of a hat.
Condoleeza Rice is indeed qualified to hold the position. Possibly the most qualified.
Neither of these facts tell us anything about whether Bush would’ve preferred to see a man in that position. There’s nothing to learn here.
However, Bush’s language demonstrates that he doesn’t take feminism seriously. And if you’re not feminist, you’re sexist.