Category — Sexism

Evelyn Murphy says of yesterday’s Globe headline calling Coakley cautious,

This is outrageous, and it is wrong.  

At the campaign’s fundraiser last night, the former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor (and first female to hold state-wide elective office) spoke about the importance of language in a campaign. 

When you run for the top offices, whether it’s Governor or US Senator, things change… The language becomes more important. And here’s what happens…

The language of what a US senator needs to be — politically strong and tough – is male. It’s about who has the loudest voice, who has the biggest shape, who is the most aggressive. It’s all those things. And that’s the way it has been defined over and over again, because [having men in high office] is all this state knows, so that’s what political strength and toughness is [defined to be]. But that’s not what it necessarily is.

Murphy stressed that Coakley is plenty strong and tough in the ways that don’t necessarily fit a masculine stereotype, but are the ways that matter. [Read more →]

Check out this video of the GOP silencing the women Representatives during Saturday’s Stupak floor debate.

Proud Coakley supporter Rep. Niki Tsongas is around the one minute mark:

Cross-posted with permission.

by Kathy Groob, Publisher ElectWomen Magazine

A Boston Herald pop culture reporter called Massachusetts attorney general and candidate for the United States Senate a “mean girl” and an “ice queen”. Lauren Beckham Falcone took Martha Coakley to task for dodging a reporter’s question about her campaign finance report. [Read more →]

Herald reporter Lauren Beckham Falcone today called Coakley an “ice queen” and a “mean girl” for declining to answer a campaign finance question during a press conference about her work as AG. I wish I could rant about how shocking it is for women to use gender-based slurs in order to demean other women, but sadly, it happens all too often. So, in commenting on this I’m going to skip over Falcone – about whom this incident reveals truth, and skip over Coakley – about whom this incident reveals nothing. Rather I’ll focus on the women whom this incident actually hurts: women who have no newspaper column, no press conferences, no voice. [Read more →]