Kamala & Katie & Endless Sexist Smackdowns

Either we come up with a new Constitutional Amendment that prohibits women from holding any kind of political office — or we start treating women in politics like human beings.

Let’s get busy and do it. Let’s do it NOW because I’m not only fed up with the way Vice President Kamala Harris has been treated, but I fear Katie Porter will meet a similar fate now that she plans to run for a U.S. Senate seat. Watch out, Katie, it’s only going to get uglier and uglier for you. It’s not a matter of if your opponent’s upcoming political campaign will smear you, it’s a matter of when.

After all, American politics has always been smear-happy with candidates — be they male or female. So voters already know things are going to get dirty. We expect it. But women in politics have to contend with personal attacks that are a lot messier and more non sequitur than that of their male counterparts. Women have to deal with a barrage of pop-up nasties that have nothing to do with their qualifications or job performance. Or the truth.

With the ladies, it’s all about matching the right kind of emotional disgust from voters with the right strength or weakness of the females who dare to enter any political domain. Their detractors in the biased mass media, as well as the spin doctors lurking in their opponent’s headquarters, forego facts in favor of emotional negativity. Then they direct it at the unfortunate one who has all the skills and qualifications for public office — except a penis.

Let’s take a look at both Kamala and Katie, dear readers, to better understand what they’re up against.

Both women are intelligent, outspoken, well-educated “California Girls” who were professors before they became deeply involved in political life. Ms. Harris got elected to the US Senate, then became the first woman, as well as the first Asian-American and African-American, to get elected to the US Vice Presidency. Ms. Porter got elected to the US House of Representatives, and is now running for the US Senate seat that will be vacated by Dianne Feinstein. Despite the achievements and successes of these women, their detractors have managed to find creative ways to smack them down into the unfit-for-office category with unfair and really stupid criticism.

Last month, Vice-President Harris made a successful goodwill trip to Africa. By most accounts, it was a friendly, fact-finding mission. It was also her assignment to diplomatically remind countries that were being courted by China and Russia that America would always be their helpful, loyal ally. Mission accomplished!

But what was the photo our local newspaper chose to print? A photo of Vice-President Harris standing beside an American flag and smiling at her African audience…No, wait. She’s laughing! Wow. An attractive woman with a beautiful smile who can actually laugh! OMG! SMH!

And what was the copy our local newspaper decided to slap above that photo? KAMALA LAUGHS!

Really? Really? Yeah, Really.

Well, it’s all Kamala’s fault. Here she is, a good-looking woman among a lot of dull, dowdy bureaucrats. She’s a shocking pink in a sea of muted grays. Of course, the focus is going to be on her appearance and gregariousness. Of course, looking that way nowadays translates into “snowflake.” Anyone who looks like a Kamala has also got to be a ditzy airhead, a goofy broad who doesn’t know what she’s doing — you know, a political liability for President Biden. Why? Instead of analyzing her positions or actions, her detractors keep reminding voters of her chuckles and giggles and laughter. That’s because those things are negatively associated with utter silliness. As in, she’s not trying hard enough, she’s not taking her job seriously enough.

To their credit, other news organizations and outlets did give pertinent information about this African Tour. There was some focus on data. There were some attempts to help citizens understand she was functioning as US envoy as well as US Veep on this trip. And yet, the obvious questions still remain.

Why photograph her when she was laughing, then make that the main angle of the their story?

If she had been photographed eating food at an embassy dinner, would their angle have been about how she was pigging out?

Suppose she’d looked like a butt-ugly prune with bad teeth. Would that caption have been something like “Wrinkly Kamala Olive Scares Elephants, Creates Stampede”?

The calendar might say 2023, but even in the 21st Century, you still haven’t come a long way, baby. Especially if you’re in the American political arena. If you’re a woman in this line of work, you’ll always have too little of something or too much of something else. It’s never enough or it’s way more than enough. Whatever you have or don’t have, it will always be fair game for your detractors to demolish.

Then if you’re strong enough to withstand their absurd attacks, they’ll go after your loved ones. So they won’t figuratively kill the warrior, they’ll go after the warrior’s heart. For women, that usually means family and children.

In Katie Porter’s case They’ll probably go after her kids by attacking her as a bad mother — an unfit, selfish, absentee mother. As in:
Sure, she’s an intelligent, accomplished professional woman who has been a somewhat capable US Representative. BUT JUST WHAT KIND OF A MOTHER IS SHE? How did this liberated, progressive woman ever find time, as a single parent, to raise her own children? Where are her family values? She’s so pro-abortion that she probably had one herself because she’s supporting the abortion pill by mail and her career was more important to her than spending time with her own babies!
Katie Porter: NOT FOR FAMILY, NOT FOR THE US SENATE!

Come election time, that scenario won’t be that far-fetched.

Now look at Hillary and Elizabeth, the other women who got smacked into The Sisterhood of the Walking Wounded.

No human being could have been more qualified to be President of the United States than Hillary Clinton. But people didn’t like her. They didn’t even know WHY they didn’t like her, they just didn’t like her. So she got attacked with all the absurd criticism the anti-Hillary brigade could muster. She didn’t put fresh flowers on her father’s grave every week, the heartless witch. She actually told coal miners the truth! She told them their occupation would become obsolete in the 21st Century. How dare she! And unlike Kamala, she didn’t smile enough, she was too serious. Why doesn’t she lighten up? Then before the big 2016 election, she stumbled and was considered unfit for office because she might have cancer. (She didn’t have cancer.) Oh, and those e-mails! That e-mail server…

Despite her official clearance to have and operate said server, et. al., she was repeatedly investigated and damned for the way she handled her classified info. Meanwhile 7 years later, low-level Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira got a high level of security clearance and proceeded to disclose highly classified military intel for over 4 months before anyone knew or cared about it. Oh, the irony!

Then, there’s Senator Elizabeth Warren, A.K.A.. Pocahontas.

Years earlier when she was employed as a teacher, her school asked about her ancestry. So she revealed one of her ancestors was Native American. Later on when she became Senator Warren and opposed POTUS 45, her genes became fuel for the fire. Remember how President Trump blasted her as a liar, then ridiculed her by giving her the moniker of Pocahontas? When her genealogy research revealed that she was indeed telling the truth, Trump never acknowledged it. Or apologized for his ethnic slur. She even got publicly scolded by a tribe member who reminded her that there was more to being a Native American than just saying you’re Native American.

Even if they do manage to win their elections and re-elections, women in politics continually face this blatant sexism disguised as “politics as usual.” Well, it’s not politics as usual, it’s just one personal attack after another. It’s just relentless mudslinging you can’t avoid or ignore.

Did you hear that, Kamala?
Are you listening, Katie?
Get ready, it’s only going to get worse before anything changes for the better.