Wednesday, June 10, 2009

You keep using that word "sexism" ...


Um ... excuse me?

One Conservative staffer said the document fiasco was a handy pretext to dump the under-performing Bernier — and that Raitt is in a different league.

``Look, she's a competent minister, she's a woman, and she's from Ontario,'' he said.

``You don't throw her under the bus unless you absolutely have to. ... Do you really want to sacrifice a capable, female, Ontario cabinet minister unless you absolutely have to?''

It occurs to me that it's a little hypocritical for Raitt's defenders to bitch and whine that she's being attacked because she's a woman, only to have those defenders turn around and defend her precisely because, you know, she's a woman.

You might want to pick a position and stick with it, kids. As unfamiliar with that concept as you might be.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I actually don't see this as hypocritical, since women are a hugely under-represented group in our government. Raitt isn't getting attacked because she's a woman, of course, but because she seems to be inept.

But, in the hypothetical world where wingers seem to inhabit, if a female cabinet minister was getting unfairly attacked because she was a woman (say, a series of thinly veiled sexist comments about temperment, hormones, children, and the like), it would be reasonable to say both "stop attacking her because she's a woman" AND "she's a female voice in government, which is one reason why she is so valuable". Note that this only applies if the attacks themselves are gender-based though. Ideally, there is no room in government for the horribly inept of either gender.