Throughout history, women have notoriously been diminished and attacked for their policies, looks, backgrounds, and mistakes. Female leaders and pioneers are at constant risk of being belittled by society. Even as early as 1412, Joan of Arc, a peasant girl, led French forces during the Hundred Years War and, following the victory, was quickly burned at the stake for her role as a powerful woman. Accused of heresy, witchcraft, and cross-dressing for wearing male military attire, her example, though six centuries ago, mirrors the systematic misogyny we see in contemporary politics today.
Sadly, the ways in which they are belittled might also stem from much greater notions built into misogyny, which are frequently seen in the realm of politics across the world. Margaret Thatcher in the UK faced criticism for being “hysterical,” “unfeminine,” and “cold,” whereas the media painted Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar as “soft,” “fragile, and “in need of protection.” They are the tropes of disparagement, the lies built into the politics of gender, and the casual insults and stereotypes that serve an agenda.
In the United States of America, who practices this “diminishing” today, and why do people believe it?
During his campaign, Donald Trump continually called presidential candidate and former Vice President Kamala Harris a plethora of racist, misogynistic, and downright mean nicknames such as “an extremely low IQ person,” “dumber than hell,” and “Lyin’ Kamala.”
The rhetorical excess and nastiness are not new in American politics.
As early as 1917, Montana Republican Jeannette Rankin was accused of crying during her vote to prevent the US from interfering in World War I. The news coverage honed in on her clothes, dancing, needlework, and the “lack of flowers or feminine knick-knacks” in her congressional office. Titles of articles described her as “Congresswoman Rankin Real Girl; Likes Nice Gowns and Tidy Hair.” According to the Washington Post, Rankin was “thoroughly feminine—from her charmingly coiffed swirl of chestnut hair to the small, high and distinctively French heels. She is given to soft and clinging gowns, and, according to her own confession, is very fond of moving pictures.”After losing the election, opponent Jacob Crull was so upset about being beaten by a woman that he then attempted suicide.
In the 1990s, when the first Black woman to be elected as US senator, Carol Moseley Braun, had her hair and body mocked on the cover of Women’s Wear Daily. “Women’s Wear Daily had me on its cover — actually a picture of my butt,” she said, “and it said, ‘this is what a Chanel sweater set should not look like.’” However, this was just the beginning of a century-long fight to disprove the misogynistic tropes we constantly see in contemporary politics.
Women are frequently labeled with cruel, sexist insults. One that seems to come up again and again is “bitch”, often used by male politicians to describe a woman when she does anything they disagree with, denies their sexual advances, or fights for women’s rights.
New York’s 14th congressional district representativeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has repeatedly expressed her feminist values and spoken out against systems currently in place that are constructed to tear women in power down. Most famously, in 2020, Ocasio-Cortez gave a moving speech on the Congress floor reflecting on Representative Ted Yoho calling her a “fucking bitch” on the steps of the US Capitol building. “When you do that to any woman—what Mr. Yoho did was give permission to other men to do that to his daughters,” she said. “In using the language in front of the press, he gave permission to use that language against his wife, his daughters, women in his community, and I am here to say that is not acceptable.”
During AOC’s speech, one of the most powerful women in politics today, Nancy Pelosi, offered her thoughts, stating, “I can tell you this firsthand: they called me names for at least 20 years of leadership. You’d say to them, ‘Do you not have a daughter? Do you not have a mother? Do you not have a sister? Do you not have a wife?’ What makes you think you can be so — and this is the word I use for them — condescending?”
The sad reality is that anything can make a woman a “bitch” in a man’s eyes, but this profoundly offensive term hasn’t only been used against Ocasio-Cortez.
In the lead-up to the highly anticipated 2016 election, Trump notoriously sold “TRUMP THAT BITCH” shirts, bumper stickers, yard signs, and even hot sauce bottles at his rallies. Trump has an infamous history of referring to women as “bitches”, and even as early as 2006, Trump stated he wished then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a “bitch,” as he found her attractive and reflected on how he would want a sexual relationship with her. Though this makes no sense, Trump consistently has voiced his opinions surrounding women, which remain untrue and unfair.
Whether too nice, too mean, too “sharp-elbowed,” or too much of a “people pleaser,” both men and women in politics continually diminish other women for doing the smallest of things. In Ocasio-Cortez’s words, “But hey, ‘b*tches’ get stuff done.”
Racism is recurring among both men and women in politics, manifesting in both rhetoric and the policies of people in power. Yet, it is frequently disappointing how women are put down for how their race and gender intersect. The idea that women have to pick one piece of their identity to define their political stance is absurd but typical, as we see so many female politicians being boxed into stereotypes.
After Biden dropped out of the race in June, we watched Trump attack and belittle Kamala Harris for her gender, personality, and intelligence. In a forum with Black journalists, we even saw him “race-baiting” her, then questioning her race, stating, “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Harris has been pushed into the “aggressive and power-hungry” trope, which has continued since her initial run for vice president under Biden in 2020. A’shanti Gholar, president of Emerge, a company that focuses on training Democratic women, added, “There is a history in the United States about the perception of Black people, about the perception of Black women, that we’re not smart enough, that we’re not good enough, that you only get to where you are because of affirmative action,” she said. “So when you attack people of color, when you attack the vice president, you’re really showing that you have these biases.”
Racism in politics, though it often disguises itself in sneaky policies and microaggressions, can sometimes come in more obvious forms. When racism and misogyny come together to target women of color, the impacts can be devastating and lead to local lawmakers enforcing unfair policies.
Trump is an extreme example of this, often calling women of color stupid and unfit for politics. Trump actively demeans his opponents. In 2018, while being interviewed by three Black reporters, he called one a “loser” and laughed at another while saying that they asked lots of stupid questions. In 2019, he went as far as to take to social media while in a fight with House Democrats, calling a group of POC congresswomen “The Squad” and telling them “to go back to the crime-infested waters from which they came.”
Donald Trump’s potency in politics is not only incredibly harmful to politicians around him but also gives Americans an excuse to be openly racist and misogynistic. After all, if the President of the United States can do something, why can’t everyone else? By voting for candidates who don’t perpetuate harmful messaging and stereotypes, we can cause change and see more women and people of color voted into our local offices.
Votes often end up coming down to what women are wearing. The double standards we see among the policies of men versus women are not where the misogyny ends, and throughout history, these unfair notions have expanded into even personal fashion sense. Until the 1990s, there was an unwritten rule that women had to wear skirts and dresses on the Senate floor. This was unknowingly challenged in 1993 after Moseley Braun, oblivious to the unspoken rule, wore an Armani pantsuit to work. Reflecting on the time, the former senator said, “It was kind of shocking to me at the time that there would be this unwritten rule that women had to wear dresses. What century is this?”
More recently, in 2011, when Hillary Clinton frequently wore pantsuits, Tim Gunn asked, “Why must she dress that way? I think she’s confused about her gender.” The absurdity of these unwritten rules is evident. Why should it matter what a woman is wearing? No matter how foolish this may seem, it significantly impacts how people across America and even the world vote for local leaders.
Even in the left-leaning media, women’s clothing and looks are almost always mentioned. In 2019, when Elizabeth Warren was interviewed in the New York Times, one of the most liberal newspapers in America, stereotypes were still heavily perpetuated. A piece intended to highlight Warren’s policies instead gave people an image of Warren in the kitchen, opening with what she was wearing when walking her dog at a nearby pond. “It was a sunny day in February, a couple of weeks after Warren announced her candidacy for president, and she was wearing a navy North Face jacket and black sneakers with, as usual, rimless glasses and small gold earrings. Her hair had drifted a bit out of place.”
The color of a man’s shirt rarely characterizes men in politics, yet it is an “important” piece of a woman’s potency.
However, it is also true that due to public attention on a woman’s choice of clothing, there are also ways to send messages through colors and cuts. For example, at Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2016, Hillary Clinton wore an all-white pantsuit, referencing the women’s rights movement. She wanted the media to cover that.
Clinton wasn’t the first woman to do this, however. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to be elected to Congress, wore an all-white outfit on Election Day, and in 2016, Michelle Obama wore an armor-inspired suit to the last state dinner, which designer Donatella Versace claimed to be “all about a woman’s freedom: freedom of movement, freedom of activity, freedom to fight for their ideas, freedom to be whomever you want to be.”
Journalists, reporters, and even us, as viewers, consciously and subconsciously judge women in politics based on their looks and style. Although some may not see a deeper meaning behind these actions, both male and female politicians know that if they can attack a woman based on her policies and appearance, there is a higher chance that the public will take their side. The media knows this, too, often calling out female politicians for looking unfit to be in power. However, it is critical to understand that there is always a hidden connotation behind one-sided coverage. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as mentioned before, has constantly spoken up against these systems and recently tweeted that the reason journalists “can’t help but obsess about my clothes” was because “women like me aren’t supposed to run for office — or win.”
The United States of America has now chosen a man with 34 felonies, two impeachments, six bankruptcies, and accusations of rape and sexual assault to run the country twice. In both circumstances, the other option has been a woman. Though we may disagree with policies on both sides, it is crucial to vote for candidates who reflect who you want to shape the lives of those around you. Of 47 presidents across 235 years, not one has been a woman, and only one has been a person of color. Let us all take this as a chance to be better, reflect on our actions, campaign with local lawmakers, and make a difference when we are all of age to vote.
