Labels of Sexism/Racism, when is it enough.

The most recent cover of Newsweek has Michelle Bachmann on the cover, with the title "Queen of Rage". In a typical Washington D.C. angle of attack the source, not the content. The labels of "sexism" get thrown around. Now, for those that haven't seen the cover, here is the actual cover being in question.


Now to get a topic going, when can this card and the race card not be so quick to be drawn? This along with the 2009 stance by some Democrats, "Calling President Obama a socialist is just another way to get around calling him the n-word". When its used for non warranted issues, it loses its meaning. Now, I am not going to get into the whole Birther thing, which really did have race playing a factor, but some stories are just overboard with these terms being used.

 

Obama's a socialist due to his policy and his Obamacare.. Nothing do with his race

The race and sex card gets pulled when it's in the best interest of the individual to use it... Because it works most of the time

Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk

 

it's remarkable to consider the extent to which the success of roger ailes-style faux news politics, and that of the legion of intellectual bottom-feeders who feed into and from it, relies on the production of stupid little memes that can be handled like a pastry and mooshed into the face of whichever public figure is the officially sanctioned object of the conservative group hate of the moment.

socialist? obama? on what fucking planet? his health care plan? socialist?
you don't know what you're talking about.
words have historical referents, you know. there's more to them than their meme-values.
maybe get a dictionary.

"the race card"---didn't this little meme originate with the o.j. simpson trial? funny how the conservative apparatus picked up on it. fits right into the facile thinking that imagines there is such a thing as "reverse discrimination"--which is a lynchpin in the discursive construction of the petit-bourgeois victim so much a part of conservative identity politics.

i recall that in conservativeland racism's been "fixed" right? we're o so by that now.

please.

bachman? the word that repeatedly springs to mind is idiot.

 

I'm not particularly sure what aspect of that cover is supposed to be sexist. Do you have a link to an article or editorial which discusses who thinks that cover is sexist and why? Are you asking more generally about sexism being used to criticize female candidates?

My only comment about that cover is that she looks fucking terrifying. Intentionally or unintentionally, that picture makes her look like she's just been touched by madness itself. Or, perhaps, by one too many facelifts. Either way. (Was that sexist?)

 

the left really should stop calling every criticism of the president racist. the problem is that it causes the right to cognitively shutdown everytime it's used. so the lefts legitimate arguments are totally ignored by the right because they have to bring race into the picture instead of sticking to the issues.

 

what left are you talking about exactly?
who exactly refers to every criticism of obama as racist? that sounds to me like projection.
it also excludes a fairly significant aspect of political reality--there are **lots** of people well to the left of obama who are very critical of his centrist administration.
so once again the right works to construct an imaginary world for that demographic in which their political comportments are normal because they mirror those of others.
which is false.

and the right cannot concede the simple fact that obama is a centrist because that positions them on the extreme right. which is where, in fact, they now are.

 

If Obama's policies and healthcare plan were socialist, I would have much less to complain about. He's a wishy-washy moderate and folds to right-wing interests at the mere suggestion of confrontation.

 

make no mistake, the only reason obama's policy aren't more socialist is because of the pressure from the right. he continually has to compromise with the right even due to the overwhelming pressure from the right. it happened on healthcare and it happened on this debt issue.

 

So she looks crazy. She's a powermonger with no excuse except her asshole. She claimed not to have seen the cover. I don't believe her. Her rights end where mine begin. I can smell her from here...

 

I seen many articles calling that Bachmann photo sexist. How I don't know. I seen many people this year and in 08 use the "If you are criticizing Bachmann/Clinton, you are being a sexist". I started this thread more in lines with the general, race and sexism get thrown around too much. There are times when it is an issue, other times it is an utter joke. People who don't have an argument are generally the first to throw those words around to attack the person not the issue.

I was flat out saying that for some people in the Birther issue, race was involved. Not the main sticking point for all, but race was a factor in some of this nonsense. No other President or serious candidate had keep going other this issue over and over again. I know that Bachmann was a birther, but not everything was completely about race. But some people in the Dem and liberal world were using the line "if you keep saying Obama is a socialist, then you really want to say he is a n-". Which is fallacy on several points, since for one, he isn't a socialist. Two, he is left leaning center, and most importantly, not every criticism of the president is about race, its about his policies.

 

i agree the political correctness is destroying legitimate debate.

i don't think that photo is sexist, however it is totally unflattering and possibly not touched up like every news magazine is nowadays to make the cover look appealing.

it may be your opinion that he's not socialist which is fine, but ya at no point of someone declaring obama a socialist should that person be considered racist. imo it really does a disservice to legitimate race problems. hillary could of enacted the exact same policies and would of been labeled a socialist as well. socialism or capitalism or any other form of economics has nothing to do with race.

there's no question that there are racists in the tea party. what percent of the tea party is racist? 1%, 5%, 10%? i have no idea, but i dont believe it's any more than any other political groups. which political party doesn't have bigots and extremists? in any political group as large as the tea party you're going to find racists, rioters, criminals, provocateurs. the racist signs i've seen in the news at tea party rallies are noteworty, but they aren't a good representation of what i've witnessed at several events. i saw a a couple signs that were retarded in a group of 3000. does that really mean the whole group has to be racist?

i can find similarly retarded signs at any event that involves at movement with many members.

 

I apologize, Perfxion, for my awkward response. I DO NOT LIKE Michelle Bachman because she strikes me as self-serving & uncaring. I don't see how that cover picture could be construed as sexist without the title including "Queen". Should I take that as a slam on somebody else entirely? I don't think so, & I wonder about people who legitimize their reactions to perceived slights with buzz-word titles that end in ism. I don't wonder about the publishers' motives because it would cut into my haiku-writing time. Or it bores me. I forgot somebody merged politics.

 

gee, what a horrifying idea, health care for children of lower-income folk. those people are all parasites anyway. their kids deserve to get sick.
any other viewpoint is obviously socialist. stalinist. bad.

what an idiotic critique. i cannot believe that horseshit gets taken seriously by anyone in their right mind. maybe it doesn't.

the problem with bachman is not only that she's not real bright, but that her politics are appalling. combine the two and you end up with an indication of just how bankrupt intellectually the republican party is. i assume the charges of sexism about the photo in the op are all coming from the right. that'd be tossing around an inflammatory term in the interests of damage control.

 

This whole Obama is a socialist thing might not be so easily attributed to racism if Obama's policies were even remotely socialist. Seems more akin to restaurant staff calling black customers "canadians" as a way of talking about them without sounding racist.

When your criticisms of someone in no way resemble the reality of that person, it is perfectly natural for the casual observer to suspect that your criticism serves as a proxy for something you're unwilling to mention. Maybe it isn't racism, but it's something and it has nothing to do with actual socialism.
--- merged: Aug 11, 2011 3:34 AM ---
For the record, Bachmann is a former tax attorney who has repeatedly asked and received handouts from the government. Even now, she's begging the government to build a bridge in her district when a perfectly serviceable bridge is within a short distance of the site where she wants the new bridge to go.