Tuesday's election results were a huge win for women...so why the sour grapes?
With the Dems taking control of the house, Nancy Pelosi is set to become the first female Speaker of the House--the closest a woman has ever come to the Oval Office. Hillary is frigging everywhere, with rumors of a presidential run. Claire McCaskill and Amy Klobuchar's wins put women's representation in the Senate to 16--an all-time high. The list of wins for women goes on and on.
Clearly, American voters are taking women politicians seriously. Too bad everyone can't do the same. Some men have been coming out to describe their displeasure with women's wins in what can only be described as a "girls are icky" line of argument (whining).
Echidne points to a report from Media Matters; during MSNBC's election coverage, Chris Matthews said that that Senator Clinton gave a "barn-burner speech, which is harder to give for a woman; it can grate on some men when they listen to it -- fingernails on a blackboard."
He also said that Pelosi will "have to do the good fight with the president over issues" and asked: "How does she do it without screaming? How does she do it without becoming grating?"
Nothing like the sound of an uppity woman, huh Chris?
Dennis Miller's appearance on Hannity & Colmes may take the cake though. Miller rambled off a list of reasons why Pelosi would be a terrible Speaker of the House, most of which could have been summed up with, "But she has a vagina!"
My favorites:
"To think that a C-minus, D-plus applicant like this, who no doubt would have been drummed out of the Mary Kay corps after an initial four-week evaluation period, might have a seat at the table of true powers, the speaker of the House, is absolutely insane."
"Every time I see Pelosi in her little Chanel suits -- a latter day "Wacky O" -- regurgitating the Democratic talking points that she had to learn phonetically because the word "grasp" is not even vaguely in her vocabulary, I shake my head so badly you could blend paint colors in my mouth."
(Amanda has a great rundown of the whole appearance with sexist screen shots and all.)
Then of course, the latest dig came from President Bush himself, who in speaking of Pelosi said "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 new drapes in her new offices."
Mary Kay, Chanel, and drapes--yup, that about covers what the lady politicians are into.
Of course, taking sexist swipes at women is nothing new. But it seems that the higher in political rank women climb, the bigger babies some men become. So grow up, boys. We're not going anywhere.