Reply #39: Media [View All]

To say the media influences no one is, well, naive. :)

Of course the media influences. But the bigger issue for me, and I'd bet for many other women (not all, of course) is that these things were being done and no one chastized the doers for it. No one stood up and yelled, "Enough. You don't agree with Hillary, list your reasons, but stop the sexist insults".
THAT was the problem for me. I thought we were past using sexist insults, but this campaign has proven we are not. Our daughters, and granddaughters can be insulted in this way and no one (except other feminists, and not all of them) will step up and say..."Whatever you disagree with, state it, but stop the sexist insults."
I believe THAT is the reason so many women are so damn mad.
If the media had used every racist term to describe Obama, do you think no one would have stood up and said, "STOP"? Do you?
It's the cheering of the sexist insults made to Hillary, and seen by a large number of women as a low class way to try to discredit her. It was also seen by a large number of women as setting women's rights back years.
Even now there is no disgust with the terms used by the media. There is either cheering or denial. That says to me that our society has a whole lot of growing to do before it reaches equality.
I do believe those insults made it harder for Hillary to state her cause and be taken seriously, but that's another matter. The matter at hand is that sexism was used and no one objected except those women and men who recognized it for what it was, the ones who called it out. And it wasn't Obama who recognized it and tried to stop it. And it wasn't the Democratic leaders.