What’s come through, in the coverage and early analysis of the election, is that internalized sexism is a force to be reckoned with. By “internalized sexism,” I mean a couple different things. One is the comfort that some women – white women especially, given the racism of our society’s beauty standards – take in playing the role of object. I’m thinking of that viral *photo* <http://www.mediaite.com/online/people-are-losing-it-over-a-woman-whose-shirt-says-trump-can-grab-her-you-know/> of a middle-aged white woman in a tank top with “Trump can grab my” plus an arrow pointing down. I’m thinking, too, of the *much* <http://fusion.net/story/368213/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-america-hates-women/> -*quoted* <https://mic.com/articles/158995/more-white-women-voted-for-donald-trump-than-for-hillary-clinton#.k4PhPHjdZ> positive remarks one female Trump supporter *made* <http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/9-women-on-why-theyre-still-voting-for-trump.html> about groping.
There are, of course, limits to what can be extrapolated from such anecdotes; let’s not assume every woman who simply votes for the Republican wants Trump to grab her, or would even joke about this! But I see how it would be appealing, in a society that values women for sex appeal, to identify as one of the ‘hot’ women Trump would approve of. To be a Donald Trump woman was to be heterosexually desired. To be a Hillary Clinton woman – in this warped and superficial understanding – was to throw on a pantsuit and ask to be valued, instead, for your abilities. But internalized sexism is also the thing where women are put off by other women’s ambition. We live in a society that denigrates female achievement. That much-discussed reaction Hillary Clinton provokes – that she’s a bit too power-hungry, a bit *entitled* – isn’t one only men experience. I know I’ve thought similar, over the years, rolling my eyes at some professional achievement-shouting more than other, only to realize I’d been giving female classmates or colleagues the harder time (not to mention being insufficiently self-promotional myself). It’s an unconscious bias I’ve made a conscious effort to combat, for both principled and selfish reasons; I make no claims of having conquered it entirely. Point being, I don’t think it’s just that Clinton’s particular achievements aren’t relatable – class-wise or achievement-level wise – to most voters, including white women. Neither candidate here was *relatable*. I think it’s that female achievement is, even to many women, unappealing and uncomfortable. Longwinded point being: Yes, female Trump voters, like all Trump voters, are guilty of at the very least looking the other way when it comes to racism. But it’s not quite that they picked racism over feminism, because priorities. It could also be that their oppression as women converged with their indifference as white people, leading to… that pesky 53% http://forward.com/sisterhood/353945/so-um-about-the-white-female-vote/ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
