Battle of the Sexist: The Bias of Trump’s Presidential Campaign
Professor Linda McClain authors Justia article on the gender politics at play in the 2016 presidential election.
Remember the good old days when women might have opposed a Republican presidential candidate because they did not agree with his positions on women’s issues? What are we to do with one who won’t take women seriously at all? There’s no time to talk about real issues when we have to fight through the sexism that pervades every speech, debate, and hot mic accident. (Mitt Romney, with his “binders full of women,” seems sort of sweetly naïve by comparison to Trump, as does Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his misplaced Hollywood bravado that led him to call his opponents “girlie men.”) The bias against women is implicit, explicit, and altogether startling. Although Donald Trump has insisted that “no one respects women more” than he does, his statements, actions, and record speak volumes to the contrary.
Trump v. Clinton: The Gendered Debates
It should not be surprising that the first presidential election with a female, major-party candidate would raise some gender issues. Hillary Clinton is always doing a balancing act by acting male enough to be seen as a leader, but female enough to be liked. After the first presidential debate, in which Hillary Clinton emerged (by most accounts) the decisive winner, some commentators linked the victory to Clinton finally finding “the balance on gender that has bedeviled her throughout her career.” That balance, according to CNN journalist Maeve Reston, requires her to “[d]emonstrate power, command of the issues and the ability to shred your opponent—all while seeming (just) likeable enough.” Reston quoted commentators who stressed her skillful—even “fascinating”—gender performance in that high stakes debate. On the one hand, Clinton bested Trump by demonstrating leadership qualities traditionally seen as masculine: substantive knowledge of the issues, extensive political experience, self-confidence, control, and strength. On the other, she successfully channeled qualities associated with femininity: her clothing (a suit in a power color—red—but with a feminine, not severe cut), her self-identification as a grandmother, her frequent smiles, and even her widely reported“debate winning shoulder shimmy,” as she geared up to respond to Trump’s claim that he had the better judgment and temperament to be president. The shimmy, according to Elite Daily, is the new ‘Bye Felicia,’ the ultimate millennial kiss off.
By comparison, Trump put on quite a manly show. He interrupted Clinton anywhere from 3 to 51 times, depending on the news source and its definition of an “interruption,” but it was noticeable enough that everyone was discussing it during and after the debate. He talked over Clinton and seemed to many to be cocky and overly confident, despite a pretty stark lack of political experience, and seemed out of control. Many women watching this performance saw their bosses in his testosterone-fused style. Deborah Tannen, a linguistics scholar who writes about men, women, and language, told a reporter that this sort of behavior is “frustrating in women’s lives,” and “to see it up there in a dramatic way, it’s a little bit of PTSD. You’re seeing the things you suffered from. It brings it back.” …