Blog Against Sexism

With 15 minutes left in International Women's Day, here is my blog against sexism.

I don't remember the first time I ever really encountered sexism. Some people have stories about how they were treated as kids but I wanted both Barbies and Tonka trucks so I got both Barbies and Tonka trucks. Sometimes the Barbies drove the Tonka trucks in the sandbox. And as far as I can remember, there wasn't much more than "girls don't" and "girls can't" and "you throw like a girl" for most of my childhood. In any case, I can't remember anything specific so I won't talk about the first time I truly encountered sexism, because it's a boring story.

But today I was at a lecture by Dr. Kristyn Scott, a Management professor at U of T Scarborough. She was talking about her research about women and leadership, specifically how stereotypes about women prevent us from recognising behaviours as being indicative of particular leadership traits. I felt like most of what she said was fairly obvious - that in order to see more women as leaders we need to stop allowing stereotypes to block us from recognising agentic leadership traits as "non-feminine" - but while I was sitting there listening to her I reflected back on an incident in the summer.

This summer, I was harassed because of decisions I made while serving on the student union. These decisions offended a small group of people (one person, really, two or three max) who are generally the disgusting type. And instead of being criticised with rational reasons as to why they disagreed, I was (to be expected given their history) instead berated as a woman. I was called a bitch and a whore. I was made fun of for my weight (which is actually pretty average). Pornographic pictures were posted with labels indicating that I and the SCSU were double-penetrating the students. This person drove by my house in the middle of the night screaming at me. I had to get the Administration and the Community Safety Office involved. That was six months ago. I don't even want to know what they're saying about me now. My office-mate and fellow female executive, Lisa, faced similar insults when it came to some of her decisions.

My male colleagues? When they made a decision or said something people didn't like, their characters were gone after as well. But the names they were called didn't have anything to do with their sexuality. They didn't have anything to do with their body. No, they were called "power hungry" and "corrupt." Their actions were criticised more, they were "not accountable," they were playing political games and being manipulative.

I experienced first hand the minefield that women traverse in politics. Belinda Stronach was likened to a prostitute when she crossed the floor. Many men have done the same and while they were criticised, none were ever compared to a sex worker. Stronach's hair colour and her relationships with Peter Mackay and Tie Domi are more important than her work in the House of Commons. Michaelle Jean's fashion choices are more newsworthy than her accomplishments as a journalist and as the Governor General. Hillary Rodham Clinton has thrown her hat into the ring to run for President of the United States and all anyone can say is how mannish she is and use her womanhood as a reason for any of her faults.

Because women in power are a threat. Women using their power is frightening. Women wielding power is contrary to the status quo, and the Institution, the State, the Corporation, the Patriarchy - the megatheocorporatocracy, as Twisty calls it - does not like change. It will fight it at all costs. It will use whatever it has, or thinks it has, as a weapon. And given that the megatheocorporatocracy thinks it owns women's bodies, their sexuality, it will use that against them. I should NOT have been called fat, a bitch, a whore. I can look critically at myself and my actions. I think I did the right thing, but if I were to be criticised, I should have been berated for selfishly hoarding power. I should have been told, "I think you handled this the wrong way." Most of that is useless anyway, because the people doing this were unreasonable and disgusting in other ways long before I entered politics, but still. I was ridiculed in a way that none of my male colleagues ever have or ever will be.

That's something that will forever stick out in my mind when I look back on my term in office. I learned that in this business, only men are worthy of constructive criticism. Lisa and I are only worthy of high school hallway insults.

And then people wonder why there are so few women in politics. Who wants to deal with this bullshit? Obviously there are many factors working against us - an flawed electoral system, systemic barriers of class and race and gender all intersecting, and more - but to see all the mud thrown at women politicians, it's a wonder there are any of us left at all.