Why is it that any time a female politician or any woman in a powerful position shows any sort of emotion at all, she’s given hell for it? Why is any show of emotion immediately called “tears” … and why is it always assumed to be manufactured and fake?
The last two days, the headlines in my newsreader have been bleating on and on about Nancy Pelosi’s “tears” … which I might add, I didn’t see. Oh, I saw her announcement. I also saw her recalling a terrible event in California political history –one which she no doubt was personally touched by, seeing as her brother-in-law was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before during and after the assassination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. What I didn’t see were any tears whatsoever. I saw a human being recalling an awful moment in time.
Yet entirely too many people –men, mostly– from the talking heads and journalists all the way down to the man-on-the-street saw a woman being tearful and, presumably either weak or being manipulative and faking it. In my mind, it boils straight down to sexism. A woman who wants to be powerful must be emotionless … like men are (or presumably should be). Personally, I would prefer all human beings get a little more in touch with all their emotions and not just anger (which seems to be one of the most approved emotions to display these days), even men. It would do us all some good to be a bit more human in our interactions with each other.
She wasn’t saying anything crazy either, as some seem to be implying. She’s absolutely correct that political dialogue and debate in this country has jumped off a cliff into a steaming pile of shit, and if things don’t simmer down, something bad will happen because of this ugliness. It would be one thing if the hate, anger at “the other” and outrage were only being espoused by the man-on-the-street, but it’s not. High level elected officials and entirely too many talking heads have jumped on the Hate Wagon and spew vitriol to the masses every day, instead of staying above the fray and maintaining some level of decent discourse. As long as that keeps happening, the current hateful state of American politics isn’t going to improve. It will only get worse, and who knows where that will eventually lead. I’d rather not find out.