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“Sexism: the belief that the members of one sex are less intelligent, able, skillful, etc. than the members of the other sex”
Cambridge dictionary
The left-elite certainly seem to have a problem with women. Namely, that they are unable to frame a single, coherent, logically-consistent argument regarding women. At every turn, when it comes to women, the left tie themselves in knots of contradiction and just plain silliness.
Women are smart and capable and independent. But they are also unable to succeed without quotas. Women are just as mentally strong, nay, stronger, than men. But treating women just the same as men, especially in politics, is ‘misogynist’. The mysterious, right-wing ‘patriarchy’ is fuelled by inveterate sexism. Yet the left is very, very, very sexist. So sexist they even deny that women really are women.
Nowhere more so than when it comes to women in politics. The endemic sexism of leftist politics has been especially laid bare by both its swooning over Jacinda Ardern and its interrelated narrative of female leadership and the Chinese virus pandemic.
According to commentators the reason some countries appear to be handling the coronavirus pandemic better than others is because they have female leaders. A piece in Forbes argues that women are ‘stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for our human family’. How quaint.
The article praises Angela Merkel for telling her countrymen to ‘take it seriously’; Sanna Marin for using her youth to tap into Finland’s resource of social-media influencers; Norway’s Erna Solberg for broadcasting messages to children; New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern for locking down early; and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen for utilising the country’s considerable healthcare resources.
No mention is made of other rather important factors in these lady-led countries, like wealth, population density and access to certain equipment. Instead, the idea that women know best in the fight against coronavirus has been repeated again and again. On a slightly different tack, an article in the Guardian argues that women leaders are better at dealing with crisis because they had to work harder than men to get to where they are.
That last argument should certainly surprise New Zealanders, who watched Ardern, with no experience in either business or politics, swan into parliament courtesy of being gifted a generous spot on Labour’s party list. Then she was gifted the prime ministership, courtesy of an ageing patriarch.
New Zealanders who watched Ardern dither for weeks as the pandemic swept the world might also raise an eyebrow at the “locking down early” claim.
But the argument that female leaders are inherently more able than males is dictionary-definition sexism.
Underpinning many of these claims are barely veiled stereotypes. Women are said to have more compassion, love, kindness, intuition. This revival of the ‘gentler sex’ cliché in politics isn’t new. For years, people have argued for greater female representation in parliament or public life because women apparently create a more consensual, caring atmosphere that leads to better decision-making.
Such sexist stereotypes are also integral to the left’s devotion to transgenderism. Boys who like girly things cannot be accepted by the left as merely effeminate boys. Nor are rough-and-tumble, sporty girls accepted as tomboys. Instead, any child who likes dresses and playing with dolls must be a girl. Anyone who likes sports and getting muddy must be a boy.
But it’s worth remembering that there are plenty of female leaders who make rubbish political decisions. Merkel might be praised for her response to coronavirus in Germany, but her frosty response to Italy and other EU member states’ calls for economic assistance could hardly be called ‘compassionate’. And remember when everyone was fawning over ‘the Lady’ Aung San Suu Kyi? Look at her now.
Don’t forget Merkel’s disastrous decision to unilaterally throw open Europe’s borders. Or Ardern’s laundry list of fiascos, from Kiwibuild to in-house sexual harassment: New Zealanders are well familiar with Ardern’s propensity for making rubbish political decisions.
Claiming that women are different to men because of their feminine intuition, their caring side or their gentle nature is an old and ugly form of sexism[…]
For now, we need to stop treating women like the gentler sex, and start taking women seriously as human beings, capable of as many good or bad decisions as men.
And the left need to stop being such sexist bigots.
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