"Tonight we are crossing party lines to address the now very ugly role that sexism is playing in the campaign," Tina Fey announces as she impersonates Sarah Palin in the Saturday Night Live season opener. Amy Poehler, playing Hillary Clinton, stands to her right and deadpans: "An issue which I am frankly surprised to hear people suddenly care about."
I couldn't have said it better myself. As a feminist, I'm glad to hear news commentators and panelists admit that some of the "concerns" raised by the media against Palin revealed gender bias and sexism. But why did it remain silent while Hillary Clinton endured persistent sexism -- from media and candidates alike -- throughout her campaign this past year, while it practically policed any racist talk where Obama was concerned?
Obviously, both racism and sexism are shameful attitudes that still plague our country today, and neither takes importance over the other. But it seems that racist speak in politics and the media is more readily identifiable and harshly punished than sexism -- which makes the latter an elusive enemy, one that is too often overlooked and pardoned in our society.
Consider how quick the media has been to denounce any hints of racism towards Obama. With a black presidential nominee, it seems the media has an especially sensitive ear to anything that may be considered race-related -- if not necessarily racist. Racism still exists, but the sensitive and long history of this issue is such that the popular media hasn't merely been respectful or tolerant -- it has been downright watchful. If any comments towards Obama were at all questionable, the whole world was ready to pounce on the supposed offender.
Just think back to this past summer, when The New Yorker was heavily criticized for its July 21st cover, featuring a cartoon Obama as an Islamic fundamentalist with wife Michelle as a Black Panther. Though the original intention of the cover was to point out the ridiculous misconceptions that exist about Obama, the Obama Campaign deemed the cover "poor taste," and many Americans expressed disapproval and even offense -- which, while understandable, misunderstood The New Yorker's intention to expose these concerns, not perpetuate them.
Even Bill Clinton was criticized for comparing Jesse Jackson's 1980s campaigns to Barack Obama's in an interview last January in South Carolina. Perhaps it was a racial association, but it certainly wasn't enough to accuse Bill Clinton -- often affectionately called our "first black president" -- of racism.
Why, then, has sexism only just received the attention it required all last year? Some may say that sexism surfaced against Palin more obviously than it did against Clinton, thus allowing the media to check itself more quickly. Indeed, in the dying weeks of summer, news anchors and commentators openly questioned Palin's ability to take office as a mother of five -- and yet, no one questioned Obama in this capacity, though he is a father of two. Political commentator Bill Maher referred to her as a "stewardess", on his HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher" -- and the list goes on. Such off-color comments were perhaps easier to diagnose, and the Republican Party began talking about "breaking the glass ceiling," though it never had done so before.
Still, even if sexism towards Clinton was not as overt, does that make it irrelevant? Was sexism irrelevant when Jonathan Edwards made a comment about not liking Clinton's pink suit during a July 2007 Democratic Presidential debate? Wasn't it relevant when Chris Matthews, host of NBC's "Hardball," said last January that the only reason Clinton was a frontrunner was because "her husband messed around"? (These barely scratch the surface; many transgressions against Clinton can be viewed on Youtube.com in a video titled "Mad as Hell B*tch.")
Sexism is a subtle evil that has gained acceptance in our discourse because of its euphemistic nature. Certainly the media failed in addressing this issue earlier: While it refrained from making sexist remarks about Clinton, it failed to point out when Clinton was being discriminated against -- making it twice as guilty.
Our country has come a long way in the way it handles racism -- but not far enough. It has certainly not made enough progress handling sexism. Just turn on the news every once in a while, and pay attention.
