The most sexist outbursts from politicians degrade based on gender, limit equal rights and offend both sexes as they spew out of the mouths of politicians around the globe. Call it a war on women or plain old sexism, these sexist quotes and comments are reminiscent of days when women were seen as subordinates. Sadly, the opinions may be of olden times but the sexist politician comments are recent.
Ahead of the 2012 United States Presidential Election, the "war on women" was a prominent topic with the Republican and Democratic parties trading jabs against one another and on the fairer sex at campaign rallies and in televised interviews. Women raged when Rick Santorum declared women too emotional to serve in combat, an opinion also shared by fellow GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich nearly two decades earlier.
But it's not always the words that say the most, it's also the actions of politicians that stuck out like a sore thumb. Women cried foul when state officials passed bills to limit their rights, such as in Wisconsin when a provision regarding equal pay for women was repealed or in Virginia when lawmakers sought to require an invasive ultrasound prior to an abortion.
Despite being the 21st century, this sexist thinking is still encountered and it's not limited to the states. United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron was criticized for telling a woman to "calm down, dear" while Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby had the nerve to meow at a well respected female colleague.
Call it old-fashioned values or simple ignorance, but unfortunately sexism is still alive and well today and these sexist political comments prove just that.
http://www.ranker.com/list/the-most-sexist-outbursts-from-politicians/barbara-gaston,
Newt Gingrich on Women in Combat
Nearly two decades before Rick Santorum was analyzing how unfit for combat women are, fellow GOP 2012 hopeful Newt Gingrich made headlines discussing women in combat.
In 1995, Gingrich said:
If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections.
You'd think a guy who had been married as long as Gingrich would know a thing or two about how the female body works. But apparently, it didn't take, because this sounds a lot like the sort of opinion you'd have if you got all your information about anatomy from watching "Gray's Anatomy." With the sound off. And sometimes confusing it for "Criminal Minds."
Georgia State Rep. Terry England Compares Women to Livestock
While debating a bill that would criminalize certain abortions, Georgia State Representative Terry England compared women to livestock, saying:
Life gives us many experiences... I've had the experience of delivering calves, dead and alive — delivering pigs, dead and alive... It breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it.
When asked by women everywhere, "WTF?" England simply replied, "Lol idk."
This speech is really TOO insane not to explore a bit more thoroughly. I'm sorry. I can't help myself.
- Terry opens by saying "I will be short and brief in my comments." Both short and brief? Even better, he goes right from there in to saying "Life gives us many experiences..." Right away, you can tell this ain't gonna be short or brief enough.
- He then goes on to the above quote about delivering dead calves and pigs (which I think we're supposed to assume is a parallel for humans having abortions, though it mainly made me wonder why he was delivering so many stillborn calves and pigs. Does he live near a nuclear plant or something?)
- England then tells a story that starts "we were talking about dog and hog hunting and chicken fighting." This must have been some kind of enlightened conversation. Terry England's got a regular Algonquin Round Table going down there in Georgia. I hope someone is studiously recording the content of these discussions, so that one day they can be preserved and published in a series of bound volumes that are perfect for coffee tables.
- Anyway, the point of the story, after much dithering, is that a guy pulled him aside (calling him "Mr. Terry") and says he'll stop cockfighting when the government outlaws abortion. For those keeping track, this is the SECOND TIME in an under four minute speech in which England has directly compared women to farm animals. When asked for comment, England replied "Hey, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, both of which I also think are comparable to women."
- England proceeds by saying that he's been against abortion his entire life. Cause it's the sort of thing that young boys are always talking about. Their stances on a woman's right to choose. Glad he made his mind up early.
- Then he reads from the Bible, the "Owner's Manual of Life." Which is a weird metaphor, because you don't really OWN your life, at least, in the same way you own a blender. I was intrigued to discover, though, that if you turn the King James Bible upside down and backwards, it's re-written in French and Japanese.
- England ends by quoting a Bible passage suggesting that God knows us before we are conceived. So birth control is pretty much also right out, I'm afraid. Also, England notes that the Bible "doesn't stutter" and "doesn't stammer." Which I find is typical of all books, really.
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell on the 'Rape' Abortion Bill
He later backed off this position and supported a watered-down version, but initially, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell publicly backed an anti-abortion bill that would require women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound prior to receiving an abortion. The remark was not only seen as sexist by perceiving women as too incompetent to make informed decisions, but also as an invasive form of state-sponsored rape. (Rachel Maddow in the above clip dubs McDonnell "the vaginal probe guy." Which is a tough nickname to get around if you're a politician. Also, if you are a professional party planner.)
Rick Santorum on 'Radical' Feminism
In his 2005 book No Girls Allowed It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, Rick Santorum wrote that:
Radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.The former senator denied that he intended any attack on strong women, but said that it was actually his wife Karen who co-authored that section of the book. Oh, that Karen Santorum. She hates accomplishments! But on the bright side, if you hate accomplishments that much, Rick Santorum pretty much is the perfect guy for you. He's accomplished very little!
Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman on Equal Pay
In April 2012, Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman sponsored a bill that removed stipulations regarding equal pay for women. The apparent expert on the female psyche argued that there is no such thing as pay discrimination; rather, women are paid less because they choose to be paid less. (Well, who wouldn't?)
Women, after all, get to duck out of the workforce to raise children, while men are left slaving away at their offices just to provide for said children (not to mention the wives). Grothman proclaimed:
Money is more important for men. Take a hypothetical husband and wife who are both lawyers. But the husband is working 50 or 60 hours a week, going all out, making 200 grand a year. The woman takes time off, raises kids, is not "go go go." Now they're 50 years old. The husband is making 200 grand a year, the woman is making 40 grand a year. It wasn't discrimination. There was a different sense of urgency in each person.I mean, be fair, a woman's going to maybe "go go," and maybe just "go," but she's never going to "go go go." I'm not sure how you can argue with airtight logic like that.
Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby Meows
Penny Wong, Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Water, was interrupted during a discussion with Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby when he meowed at her.
Yes. Meowed. As if to indicate a "catfight" taking place.
Wong correctly pushed back at Bushby, calling him out on the double standard of meowing only when a woman stands her ground and argues her case, calling it "schoolyard politics." But it's not even just that Bushby's being juvenile and inappropriate (though he is.) This isn't even the correct use of the "meow"/catfight stereotype. That's about when TWO WOMEN are fighting. If you want to be sexist towards a woman because she's being argumentative with a man, that's a whole different (and regrettably extensive) family of insults. If you want to be a backwards neanderthal, at least get your put-downs right.
Rick Santorum on Women in Combat
In February 2012, then GOP presidential hopeful / full-time professional woman patronizer Rick Santorum responded to news of a rule change allowing US military women to take up positions closer to the front lines in combat. Santorum said:
I do have concerns about women in frontline combat. [Women in combat could create a] very compromising situation [in which soldiers] may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other emotions that are involved.
Just to be clear, there are two possible very offensive things Santorum could be saying:
(1) Women are super-emotional crybabies who can't drive and go all bitchy psycho once every few weeks (amirite fellas?) and so if foreigners were shooting at them, they might just lose it and start revealing state secrets or something.
(2) Women in combat would make men in combat flip out and would render them incapable of completing their intended missions.
He later clarifies that he sort of meant the second one, but also adds on that women are totally weak and can't do the physical work of fighting wars. (Clearly, Rick is not a Game of Thrones fan.)
Yeah, Brienne does not look happy.
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron: Calm Down, Dear
In April 2011, UK Prime Minister David Cameron came under fire after calmly instructing irrational female Angela Eagle, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to "calm down, dear." He then repeated it six times. Now, Eagle isn't the Dowager Countess, so it's not the admonintion to "calm down" that's bothersome. But would Cameron have been so willing to throw a term of affection like "dear" around if he were responding to a male colleague? (Yeah, you're right, he'd probably have gone with "buttercup" or "love muffin" or something more statesman-like.)
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's Sweetheart
While campaigning for GOP hopeful Mitt Romney, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made a crude joke about oral sex, degraded women and made people across America gag all at once. He's a triple threat. Check out his clever clever quip:
You know, something may go down tonight - but it ain't gonna be jobs, sweetheart.
I believe it was the great politician Perciles of Athens who said "Always trow da word 'sweetheart' on da end o' yo sentences so dem broads knows you means business." Did you watch the video? Forgive me for being gauche and stooping to his level, but just look at that guy... Enough said. Let's move on.