In the Blog

“Women are Weapons-Grade Haters”

October 11th, 2008     by Cate Simpson     Comments

This gem is from an article in Time Magazine, which argues that women hate Sarah Palin because she’s too pretty and too confident.

Is anyone else really tired of media commentators seeing a couple of girls fall out on the playground and extrapolating this behaviour to our entire gender? Not that men are spared ridiculous stereotyping in this article either:

“When men disagree, the steps to resolution are reasonably clear and unsophisticated. Acts of physical violence are visited upon one another’s person or property, and the whole thing blows over. Women? Nu-unh. We savor the discord. We draw it out. We share our contempt with our friends, like a useful stock tip, or really good salsa. And then we all go hate together: a mutually encouraging group activity for when the book group gets quiet.”

This is such bullshit. Men form themselves into packs and troll feminist websites, are far more likely to be violent stalkers than women, and I don’t know about you but when I hear somebody yell “dyke” in the street, it’s usually a dude.

Obviously, not all men are responsible for these things, but don’t tell me men don’t hate, aren’t capable of rallying around their hatred, or that when acts of violence come out of that hate, there’s anything noble or problem-solving about them.

This whole campaign has spawned so much junk gender-theorizing, I almost feel bad singling out this one article. The charge is always that when women dislike a female candidate, it’s about her shoes, or her hair, or when women like that candidate, it’s only because she’s female. Meanwhile men are apparently completely immune to these sorts of surface-level criteria.

And, finally, when women feel any sort of emotion (like the desire not to vote for somebody) it gets described in this incredibly exaggerated language - they swoon for Obama, they frothed at the mouths with rage when Clinton lost the nomination, they hate Sarah Palin.

What all of these articles are saying? Men vote with their heads, women vote with their crazy irrational emotions, and all women are hysterical. Give me a break.

Hat tip to Feminist Law Profs for the link.

Tags: media savvy

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