I’m a Man and I Know What’s Best for Lady Candidates
By A Genuinely Concerned “Liberal” Man
Last June, Senator Kamala Harris did some kickass lawyer stuff to Jeff Sessions on TV. It was a masterful performance, reminiscent of a predator — like, say, a cougar — cornering prey. Stimulating stuff.
As a white man and therefore objective, I was able to fully appreciate the stirring display of a fierce feline man-eater on the hunt, because I have real respect for Kamala Harris as a senator. But many liberals (I won’t say their race or gender, but you know which ones I mean) saw it differently. They became obsessed with Republicans interrupting the big kitty — I mean, interrupting the senator. These particular liberals (you know who I mean) didn’t even realize the interruptions were actually justified because the senators were only trying to give Jeff Sessions time to answer the questions… but that’s beside the point. The real point is, social media outrage. People were angry online about something that didn’t seem that bad to me. And when one liberal opinion website and one mainstream news outlet I can name also focused on it, it was the fault of those certain liberals (you know which ones) who made it a thing.
Let me acknowledge that the people who expressed indignation at this incident meant well, bless their little hearts. They just didn’t know any better, because they don’t understand how regular, normal, white male people think. What they actually did was harm Senator Harris by making her look like a victim. I guess I could talk about how the senator who interrupted her is the one who made her look like a victim, but what would be the point of that? You can’t tackle sexism by talking about sexism. No, that only alienates the regular, normal, male folks whose support you need to dismantle sexism. When a prominent woman is treated disrespectfully by colleagues, the best thing to do is to ignore it, because normal people don’t want to hear about it. Keep in mind, I’m concerned about women breaking barriers here. Trust me, as a man I know this: you won’t break any barriers if you go around pointing out that the barriers are there.
A second example of this happened when Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told GQ about her own experiences being sexually harassed. Gillibrand is also a shrewish — er, I mean shrewd politician. Again, unlike certain people on the left (yeah you get who I mean), I possess the objectivity to see Gillibrand’s talent and her potential as a presidential candidate. And, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I am 100% behind the idea of supporting a lady presidential candidate — as long as she’s the right one, of course. This whole thing is about how much I want a lady presidential candidate to be the theoretical lady candidate I could support. I’m helping here.
Look, everyone running for president has to overcome the hurdle of getting people to see them as presidential. That barrier is probably even higher for women — I mean I don’t know for sure, it’s debatable and all, but I could see it being true, I guess? Acknowledging that a woman has faced the same challenges almost all other women face might attract support from a small, committed group, but let’s be real: You’re not going to have very broad appeal if you only appeal to broads. Relax, it’s a joke. I respect women and want them to succeed, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that.
On the left, they prize victimhood. They practically worship it. I know this because I’m still claiming to be liberal, remember. But also being white and male, I have the impartiality to see this clearly. And in my unbiased assessment, it’s obvious that people on the left are desperate to be harassed and mistreated. They think it’s the greatest thing that can happen to you. Basically they think the more you’ve suffered at the hands of white men, the closer you are to godhood. This assessment is accurate based on what I’ve seen on Twitter. I didn’t need to interview any activists or like read any books to understand this. I’m a man. I get it.
But among the country as a whole, the attitudes are very different. Sure, half the population of the country as a whole are women and about 70% are not white men. So you might think they could relate to stories of discrimination and really identify with these female candidates and the prejudices they face. You might think these 70% of Americans would even admire female candidates for overcoming discrimination. But trust me, what matters isn’t what the non white men think. What matters is how this all looks to the 30% of us who can’t relate.
Here, I’ll quote an expert, a professor who studies women in politics and who is, by the way, a woman: “Voters don’t want to be asked to vote for someone who needs to be taken care of.” You see, women who get harassed in the workplace need to be taken care of. The whole #MeToo movement isn’t so much about women standing up for themselves, it’s really all about how women are helpless and are seeking male protection. Here’s a quote from another professor, who by the way is coincidentally also a woman: “If you talk about how a woman was in a position of less power, then the image of her as less powerful will persist in people’s minds and she’ll appear weak.”
Now without context we can just take these quotes to mean never talk about someone mistreating a woman in politics, right? Can we all agree on that? I quoted two women, I don’t think I need to say much more.
The answers aren’t easy here, folks. We all want a woman to be president — if she’s qualified and the right candidate, of course. This is not a thinly veiled excuse to rant about identity politics and how irrelevant I feel in progressive circles. Not at all! This is me being genuinely concerned. I’m sincerely worried that these possibly qualified candidates whom I could potentially be convinced to support will have their chances sunk — not by the men who harass them, but by progressives on social media who insist on talking about it. Take it from me, a male person whose opinions matter: you’d all be more convincing if you talked about sexism less and smiled more.
