Media Matters put together this clip a few months ago to illustrate just the blatant sexist coverage that Hillary Clinton has endured by the mainstream media for decades.
It's something not lost on the millions of Hillary supporters over the entire election season. And frequently, those calls for awareness of the sexism and misogyny so rampant in coverage of her were met with sneers, dismissals or just flat out gaslighting. It got so bad that secret support groups cropped up all over social media so that Hillary supporters could commiserate and come up with coordinated responses to some of the attacks.
One would hope that in the 21st century, avoiding gendered coverage would not be so difficult to grasp. But clearly, it's beyond the ken of Politico (aka "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" © Charlie Pierce), who even as they reel post-election from the prospective Trump presidency, can't quite keep from turning the shiv in Hillary Clinton's back.
Losing a presidential bid looks a lot like getting dumped https://t.co/u6znwMXsYi via @POLITICOMag pic.twitter.com/KNgfHhvUvm
— POLITICO (@politico) January 1, 2017
Seriously?
Can you imagine them writing a headline like that for a male candidate?
The responses were swift and unforgiving:
@politico @POLITICOMag New title: Comfortable, peaceful woman has a little breakfast while looking at her phone.
— GmaA (@mooshielou) January 1, 2017
@politico @POLITICOMag She's a private citizen now. Go focus on the guy with the IQ of a gnat who is about to blow us all up.
— Trice (@wastedtime01) January 1, 2017
And perhaps, more to the point:
@politico delete your account.
— General Organa (@princessnymphia) January 1, 2017
It's no small thing to see how the media covers women. Beyond the impact it had on this election (and the consequences globally), this also affects other women's choices to enter into public life in the future. And that can have generational impact.
