"Can a Woman Win the Presidency?" Is the Wrong Question
Stop This Question in Its Tracks By Asking Another
Of course, immediately after President Joe Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, it didn’t take long for social media users, pollsters, and pundits to start asking about Harris’ likability — a grossly transparent question awash in misogyny.
One of my male Facebook friends who is a progressive said, “Please tell me the nominee isn’t going to be the insufferably unlikeable Kamala Harris!”
As a woman, I’m used to being critiqued for factors that men never have to consider. When I leave a social event, I do a self inventory: Did I smile enough? Did I let them talk more than I talked? Did my hair look okay? Did I laugh too loud?
The concept of likability in politics and pop culture perpetuates sexist stereotypes and standards that we only demand from women. It gaslights all of us into believing women should be judged by how they dress, what they look like and how they sound instead of the job they can do.
“I call her ‘laughing Kamala,’” Trump said at a rally. “Have you ever watched her laugh? She is crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh … She is nuts.”
Sophie Gilbert writes in The Atlantic about ways conservatives weaponize disgust against women to knock them down a peg:
In 2007, when Hillary Clinton first announced that she was running for president, Rush Limbaugh questioned on his radio show whether the country really wanted to see “a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis.” Clinton’s laugh, too, was mocked, and associated with awkwardness and weirdness. When Trump cites Harris’s laugh as evidence of the fact that she’s supposedly “nuts,” he’s not just calling out a distinctive laugh; he’s helping his audiences draw a connection in their own minds between her emotional composure in public and her moral standing as a political leader.
Trump never laughs. He smirks. He scowls. Sometimes he chuckles, like when did in 2019 when he asked asked the crowd what should be done with people who cross the border on foot.
“Shoot them!” a rallygoer shouted, to Trump’s bemusement.
Does Trump have emotions beyond greed, rage, and malice?
Nevertheless, people never accuse Trump of being "unlikeable." That is a misogynistic term people reserve for successful, accomplished women to discredit them. It uses metrics that men are never judged by: the sound of her voice, the way she dresses, how warm she appears to be.
It’s even more absurd when you consider Harris’ long list of accomplishments.
She was the first woman elected as the District Attorney of San Francisco.
She was the first woman elected as Attorney General of California.
As such, she led the second largest Department of Justice in the world.
She became a Senator of the most populated state in the country.
President Joe Biden calls the decision to pick Kamala Harris as his running mate the best decision he has made in 50 years in politics. As Vice President, her most visible responsibility was breaking Senate ties. As such, she broke more ties than any other vice president in U.S. history. She led the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the first of its kind. She hosted meetings with world leaders and drastically improved our relationship with Africa. She oversaw the expansion of health care coverage to more Americans. She encouraged union membership, which is up by 20 percent since her time in office.
Harris is a fierce advocate for abortion access, going up against a man who wants to sign a national abortion ban.
She is a prosecutor who is taking on a convicted felon.
How competent does she have to be to convince you she’s the right person for the job?
It's time to ask people directly what they find "unlikable" about her. The next time you hear someone say they just don’t like her but they can’t put their finger on why, ask them one simple question:
“Have you ever been curious if the problem is her gender?”
Be careful not to accuse them of sexism — a conversation ender.
Simply ask if they’ve ever audited their perspective.
It’s time people understand that women are critiqued based on factors that have nothing to do with whether or not they are qualified. Let's stop judging women by whether or not they are pleasant and polite, or how they dress, or what they look like, or their voice, or how they laugh, or any other arbitrary factors that have nothing to do with their qualifications of the job.
Harris was a history-making lead prosecutor who became a history-making attorney general, who became a history-making senator, who became a history-making vice president, who will be a history-making president. And I don't particularly care whether or not people “like” her.
After all, what is to like about a convicted felon, serial womanizer, who cheated on his wives, cheated his business partners, and cheated the American public, igniting an insurrection that led to the imprisonment of more than 2,000 people?
But if none of these factors are convincing, you could always remind people that Project 2025, Trump’s playbook if he wins another presidency, would devastate people lives across the board.
Project 2025 attacks no-fault divorce, making it harder for women to leave their husbands in domestic violence situations.
It defunds child abuse prevention programs and replaces them with marriage-promotion programming.
It raises costs, introducing tax burdens that could increase federal income taxes eliminate child tax credits for the middle class, while offering significant cuts for high-income earners.
It targets unions, making union membership illegal in some cases and severely restricted in others.
It makes it harder for individuals with pre-existing conditions to receive quality health care.
It eliminates federal prescription drug programs that have lowered costs for seniors and veterans.
It advocates for raising the retirement age for those with social security benefits.
I’m tired of caring whether or not people find a quality, educated, hope-filled, energetic, thoughtful, vetted, competent leader is “likable.” At the very least, I want a leader who won’t do any of what I mentioned above.
After all, in the words of Tina Fey: “bitches get shit done.”
Onward, Democracy Defenders!
I don't like Trump either! However, if you want to live under Communism, or even "Socialism," please move to California, or by all means, to Cuba! Unlike Tim Walz, my wife WAS there: She lived close enough to Tiananmen Square to hear the "shots fired." It wasn't safe for her to go to school the next day. You can't have my "Freedom!" I am proud to be a "deplorable!"