And So, The Sexism Starts! Little Man Trump Calls Kamala Harris “Nasty”

Joe Biden made an excellent choice for a running mate. It would have been hard to go wrong with such a great short list of women. Kamala Harris has experience campaigning and winning.  She’s brilliant, amiable, tough, always extremely prepared and can give as good as she gets. 

But would Trump have floated the “nasty woman” insult he used on Hillary Clinton to describe Harris if he weren’t sure that enough people will be glad to let it stick?  He knows that “nasty” when applied to women is particularly odious. Why?  Because women are supposed to be liked. You don’t see Trump calling Congressman Jim Jordan “nasty” even though he surely ranks among the most hateful and divisive members of Congress. Besides, it wouldn’t have the same meaning by a long shot.

Sweet and charming women tend to be admired, but they’re also perceived as too weak to lead. Gender is a Catch-22 for most women — be highly assertive and competent and you’re cold and maybe a “bitch” or be sweet and “feminine” and you’re a pleasure to be with but unfit to lead. That reality hasn’t escaped those now formulating a strategy to attack Harris.

Malcom Gladwell captured the problem after the 2016 election:

It is very difficult for society to accept an ambitious woman — an openly ambitious woman…. We continue to expect that women will have a kind of modesty in positions of authority. It makes it easier for us to accept that they have moved into a man’s realm.

Part of America would still rather have a racist, sexist, barely functioning narcissist as president than an exceptionally prepared, tireless, impressive woman with their best interests at heart anywhere near the office.

Sexism goes underground sometimes, but it doesn’t go away. We need to be alert and not let it pass — not this time. Sexism and racism need to be pointed out loud and clear.  

And the drivel that will surely come about how Harris dresses, styles her hair, the shoes she picks and other candidate death-by-a-thousand-cuts insults need to be labeled what they are – what “little people do” as Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said of Trump’s pathetic, misogynist attacks on Kamala Harris.  Thank you, Keisha, that captures it perfectly!