A recent survey on post-election attitudes to sexism reveals
that a majority of Americans live in La La Land. For starters: While most men don’t
believe there is gender bias in the media or at home, almost half (4 in 10) “freely
admit to having sexist attitudes towards a female president.”
Espousing
similarly mind-boggling contradictions, the vast majority of women believe that
Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton were treated unfairly by the media—but would be
mortified to call themselves “feminists.” Only 20 percent of women identify as
feminist, and even fewer (17 percent) would be supportive of their daughters’
using the label.
Merriam Webster defines feminism as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality
of the sexes.” In other words, most women are embarrassed to label themselves
as people who believe in gender equality, but are outraged over the media’s
coverage of Palin’s hair. Only 48 percent of women believe that the media treated Clinton fairly, and far
fewer female respondents (29 percent) believe that Palin got fair treatment. (Perhaps
Palin seemed to get harsher gender-based media coverage because Clinton wasn’t, say,
buying $150,000 worth of clothes on the GOP’s dime?)
Sure, some high-profile activists may have given the
term “feminist” a more extremist connotation than many women would like it to
have, but that doesn’t necessitate rejecting the whole theory. I don’t agree
with many of PETA’s over-the-top tactics, but that doesn’t mean I stop calling
myself a vegetarian.
Ready for more oblivious sexism? 39 percent of men feel that
the role of president is more “naturally suited” to a man than to a woman. I guess
that explains why so many more men than women (two-thirds to less than half)
believe there is gender equality in the home—the wife just does all the housework
because she is more “naturally suited” to it.
On the upside, the poll was relatively small, with 1,000
respondents.
Photo: Jezebel
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