Your daily dose of Election 2008 sexism, “Sweetie” edition
Courtesy of the Broadsheet, when being interview by a female reporter, Sen. Obama responded to her question by saying, “Hold on, one second, sweetie.”
This isn’t the first time Sen. Obama has made sexist remarks towards or about women that he’s had to go back and apologize for. Better yet, there’s a video clip of the sexist comment.
Sen. Obama, of course, apologized for the comment in order to avoid any additional negative press. He claimed “sweetie” was a term he used out of habit. Sorry, still not buying it.
Hi Peggy. This is Barack Obama. I’m calling to apologize on two fronts. […]
Second apology is for using the word ’sweetie.’ That’s a bad habit of mine. I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front.
So, where is the video of Sen. Obama calling a man “sweetie?” Right, that’s what I thought, there isn’t one.
Comments
Can we please have a discussion of issues that matter to the most people
and the real strengths candidates bring to the table? Using "sweetie" can be a habit for many guys who are perfect gentlemen.
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, but I think it was incredibly sexist to call a professional woman "sweetie" and that it isn't being over analyzed in the least.
Do you perceive this as suggestive of his being sexist, or are you more just offended by his use of the word?
Looking at the many strong, powerful women in Obama's life, including the one who's running his campaign, I'm inclined to write this off as a misstep.
There are plenty of interviews and news clips where he calls a guy, "Man" or "Dude". Is he also sexist against men? Come on, I call people hun, sweetie, dude, man, and other pet names. I think people are getting all upset over nothing.
Bottom line is that no one is perfect, and everyone has a slight slip of the tongue from time to time. Doesn't mean that he's sexist at all, just that he was hurried, and used a quick term to let someone know he was aware of their presence, but needed them to hold on one second.
I think that to declare someone sexist because he used a term you dislike, and to disregard the way he treats women day-in, day-out (by marrying and hiring strong independent women) is rather harsh.
I don't think you can use Ms. (or Mrs.) without a last name. You can't just be like, "I'll be with you in a second, Ms." and just stop there.
I use sweetie all the time with people (although generally only people I know) so I don't think it's a huge deal, although it really doesn't matter what I think. It matters if the reporter was offended (and judging from the last thing she said, I think she was annoyed more by the fact that he totally blew her off, not so much the "That jackass called me sweetie!" thing.
Seriously?
*yawn*
"Excuse me, Ms, you dropped your wallet."
"Excuse me, Mr, do you happen to know where the nearest bathroom is?"
It is probably explained a lot better than I ever could here.
The English language is full of so many double meanings - even more so when exaggerated by society's unwillingness to understand. Everyone talks about being politically correct and kind - and yet we're unable to understand that everyone grew up in different places and were raised differently. It seems we've gone far beyond trying to educate and informed and skipped right into judging and condemning.
If "golden man" was the term, I gladly would have used it, but it's not. Had I said "golden man", I probably would had had more than a few confused looks.
The English language is full of so many double meanings - even more so when exaggerated by society's unwillingness to understand.
Definitely agree with you on that one. I'm making a thesis out of the ability to find double meanings in things.
I think I would had had a bigger problem with the fact that a bill collector was calling me, rather than the fact that they called me sweetie.
I guess in simpler terms (sorry i can be convaluted at times) is that I would be more irritated by sweeite being used in a patronizing fashion. eh well the call helped me square things away. Making the choice of livign in an expensive state and the resulting financial difficulties of being laid off contributed to the call. It was warrented. But thats my own personal issues.
I don't know. I'm lame.
This is actually a substantial feminist commentary, and could be used to support a really sharply observed essay of feminist criticism and deconstruction on the 2008 election. I haven't been following your blog, but can presume by the title of this one that you have been following the pre-election hooplah rather diligently, and likely have others written on the topic. Although I rarely choose this criticism when writing (I suppose my criticism of choice is rhetorical, but, hell, I mostly stick to literary criticism,) I would say that when all is said and done, it might be worthwhile to compile all support into an essay. You could probably staccato in some Marxist criticism as well. I'd certainly take a glance or two at it.
But like I said, I'm lame.
I don't follow as diligently as I would like to. Damn work, getting in the way of my blogging.
That is the same with sayings and phrases though: they can be use negatively or positively, depending on the tone or the sentiment behind them.
things are getting too politically correct now-a-days.
pretty soon we won't be able to address one another without offending someone.