The Sexist Skewering of Kirsten Gillibrand [View all]

[VermontKevin]

Gillibrand now stands accused of being craven, disloyal, and cynically using this moment to build her brand and put herself in the national spotlight. Maybe she is – welcome to being a politician. Or maybe she’s just doing her job, but being pilloried for it because she’s widely believed to be considering a run against Donald Trump in 2020 – and as we learned in 2016, Americans remain remarkably hostile to women seeking power.

While Democratic strategists complained that Gillibrand’s remark about Clinton “reeks” of “political opportunism,” it’s easy to forget that Hillary Clinton was accused of the same thing for staying with her husband after the Lewinsky affair. And while the story is being framed as Gillibrand going after President Clinton, that’s not what happened. Gillibrand didn’t put out a statement or seek to attack President Clinton; she was asked the question directly during a podcast interview and responded in the moment (and clearly with some hesitation). She tried to pivot to President Trump, saying that the landscape of sexual harassment and assault claims is different now than it was when Clinton was president, and “I think in light of this conversation, we should have a very different conversation about President Trump, and a very different conversation about allegations against him.” Her spokesperson clarified the comments afterward, saying that Gillibrand meant that the current era is a different one than the ‘90s, and that President Clinton would be treated differently now. And really, what else could she have said and not been branded a hypocrite? So instead, she’s “the most devious and cunning politician in America today,” according to one Daily Beast columnist (and she didn’t escape the hypocrite charge either). It’s not just Clinton loyalists who are mad at her; far-right conservatives and Franken fans alike are, too, suggesting she is leading a "witch hunt" and a “lynch mob” to take down a senator without due process.

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Gillibrand, like Clinton before her, faces a tough road. Taking aggressive positions and putting oneself in the spotlight may be normal and admirable for male politicians, but in women it's often seen as attention-seeking and power-grabbing – we like our women quiet and working hard behind the scenes. At the same time, women face expectations that we will be more moral and high-minded than our male counterparts. That a male politician might do something for political gain is to be expected; if a female politician appears to be making a carefully calculated decision, taking her political ambitions into account, she's craven and devious.

We've seen this before, and not just with Hillary Clinton and now Gillibrand. Elizabeth Warren was a nearly universally loved progressive hero until it appeared she might have greater ambitions; then she faced backlash from certain segments of the left (especially for supporting Hillary Clinton's campaign). Kamala Harris has also been on the receiving end of sustained attacks from the left and the right since it became clear she might be a promising presidential contender. And there's a reason this latest ire is directed at Gillibrand and not the many other Senate women and men who also said Franken should resign – it's because Gillibrand took on a leadership role, and might run for president. And despite her solid progressive credentials, there are a lot of people on the left who just can't stand her. There's always a reason, of course. Sometimes it's that she was too soft on guns when she represented a more conservative district in upstate New York (though "soft on guns" didn't hurt Bernie Sanders with his base), or it's that she's a "turncoat" on guns, unlike Sanders, "a paragon of political consistency." And often it's just that she's allegedly craven or power-hungry or ambitious or maybe just unpleasant – perceptions of her character and motivations that are never disqualifying for men. Just like Clinton before her, Gillibrand is branded a grown-up Tracy Flick, a reference to Reese Witherspoon's power-hungry high-school-presidential candidate in the film Election.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a14408332/kirsten-gillibrand-al-franken-resignation-backlash/

And this was written before this:

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Which is why I totally agree with this:

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I don't think all 8 women who accused Franken are lying.
I don't think all 19 women who accused Trump are.

Funny, though, the common language used about the women involved.