Gender Stereotypes Of Misogyny In The United States

Controversy has surrounded the American political motif well before the establishment of our Democratic practices laid down by our founding fathers. Perhaps no greater a hushed concept than that of our seemingly endless practice of misogyny in our grander political landscape. Misogyny is defined as the “hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women, or prejudice against women” a notion that we can see run rampant throughout the 2016 presidential election and the endless masked attacks on candidate Hillary Clinton, that at face value attacked aspects of her overall character, but at heart aimed their sights at destroying what it means to be an effective candidate based on gender laden stereotypes (Dictionary). It is the purpose of this essay to outline

Gender roles envelope a large pool of ideals stemming from the physical standard such as women being small and graceful or the psychological such as the assumption that women are supposed to be passive and submissive (Plannedparent). Women in the professional workforce often see misogyny in a set of four typical stereotypical fashions: seductress or sex object, mother, pet, and the iron maiden (Kanter 1977 pp. 233-236). The sex object encompases everything from a women’s appearance to their choice of cosmetics, or the ways in which her voice carries either a “masculine” or “feminine” quality (Kanter 1977 p. 233). According to Kanter the motherly roles comes in several forms, from the tender and nurturing bringer of change, to the punishing and unfocused- based on responsibility to family matters- that would distract her from political responsibility (Kanter 1977, p. 234). The pet typecast is used to describe the womanly role assigned to the passive and under equipped to handle serious matters such as the term “bimbo” used in the early 20th century (Kanter 1977 p. 235). Finally, Kanter describes the iron maiden as a

358). During the 2008 presidential election two female figures stood out as front runners in the efforts of sexualization and degradation based on their image, republican vice- presidential nominee Sarah Palin and democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin coming almost from obscurity to the main stage political spotlight was instantly received as an object of sexualization, from a photoshopped image of her in a U.S flag bikini holding a rifle to a Saturday Night Live skit that dubbed her a “MILF” as Karrin Anderson states “In less than a week, Palin went from being a rising star in the Republican party and the first Republican women to be nominated for the vice-presidential ticket, be being the national MILF” (Anderson, Karrin p. 338). Hillary Clinton on the other hand was not sexualized in the same pornographic sense that Sarah Palin was a victim of, Hillary Clinton faced political sexualization of a starkly different light. An anonymous quote sparked a slogan that ran “Hillary Clinton rhymes with blunt”- blunt being a clear rhyme to a genderized slur- or that of the formation of a political committee called