Politics

C

I am a politics student. My boss at work (my job is nothing to do with politics) constantly belittles me when we are having a friendly debate. We are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, I’m very left and he’s very on the right. Anything I say is dismissed and all he does is shout over me, when it gets heated he often turns to using personal attacks. I’m very calm when I debate because there’s not use in shouting and being ignorant to other people’s views. He once shouted at me, ‘with all due respect, you don’t know anything as you’re only young and a woman’. Safe to say I called him out on his sexism and informed him he was shit at debating as it should never come down to attacking someone personally or being sexist towards them. Writing this now is infuriating me. When men don’t think I know anything as I’m a young woman, they are often surprised (They wouldn’t be if I was male) when I come across With extremely valid points with evidence to back it up!

C

I am a politics student. My boss at work (my job is nothing to do with politics) constantly belittles me when we are having a friendly debate. We are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, I’m very left and he’s very on the right. Anything I say is dismissed and all he does is shout over me, when it gets heated he often turns to using personal attacks. I’m very calm when I debate because there’s not use in shouting and being ignorant to other people’s views. He once shouted at me, ‘with all due respect, you don’t know anything as you’re only young and a woman’. Safe to say I called him out on his sexism and informed him he was shit at debating as it should never come down to attacking someone personally or being sexist towards them. Writing this now is infuriating me. When men don’t think I know anything as I’m a young woman, they are often surprised (They wouldn’t be if I was male) when I come across With extremely valid points with evidence to back it up!

Maggie

Just annoyed at the moment about the sexism from politicians. Dominic Cummings account of his trip to Durham seemed to make all kinds of assumptions about fathers and partners. There was an underlying discourse about him protecting his wife and child. Why was it assumed that he was the only person who could drive back to London? Why didn’t any reporter ask him that question? Also Boris Johnson when recently asked a question about childcare said that it was important for childcare to be restarted so that women could go back to work. Shouldn’t that be parents?

Lorna Paterson

I’m standing for my local council elections, I went out canvassing this weekend. Our parliamentary candidate wrote a lovely post about coming out and helping me. The post was shared by someone I am running against ( an independent male) the comments were about the fact I’m “blonde so give me a break” and that I need some life experience” and to “learn how politics work” I am 24, these comments were off middle aged men. You’d think running for council I might know a bit about politics? The thing is the more I canvass and my name gets around the more I know I’m going to get abuse. I know some of the comments are going to get nasty. People say they want more young women in politics but it’s so draining when not only am I fighting for votes on policies people want to question (which is fine obviously) but I also have to fight against the fact I’m a five foot 24 year old blonde. Do I have to be 60 year old male to be listened to? Apparently so.

Nicola

Now we have another ‘president’ of Brazil calling women sluts… when will other men challenge this?

Hailey

While walking in New Haven, CT right next to the Yale Hospital, a friend and I had gotten comments about our ass. Two days ago on Long Island, I was canvassing door to door for a possible future congresswoman-and a guy started honking his horn. It took me a minute to realize it was at me. He continued to honk then wave. It was uncomfortable. I don’t experience as many offences at some other women, but believing that it could have been worse is a part of the problem.

Katie

The campaign leaflet (distributed In May 2017) of Gordon Munro, Labour candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith, says that it’s time for a ‘stronger voice than the shrill song of…’ The seat is currently held by a female MP, belonging to a party led by a woman.

Angry

During lectures, my Comparative Political Systems professor talks at length about male leaders of different countries, going so far as to list unnecessary personal details about their upbringing and hobbies. The first time he mentioned a woman was last week, more than halfway through the semester. He talked about the wife of one of the political leaders… well, more specifically, he showed a bunch of pictures of her, saying that her clothing demonstrated how that country’s culture is changing. To make matters worse, he kept making comments about how “pretty” she was. I am incredibly frustrated and saddened by this because I generally think that my professor is intelligent and knowledgeable about the material he teaches; however, I’m having trouble reconciling that with this disgusting behavior.

Stephanie

Front page of the Daily Mail newspaper this morning: Picture of UK Prime Minister and Scotland’s First Minister at serious meeting. Headline: “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it”. Because they’re women. Who have legs. So let’s ignore the serious life-defining, political-landscape-changing, world-impacting event that these two professionals are working towards, and only talk about the fact the two women have legs.

M F

I’m in the States. During the Trump-Cliton debates on TV, Trump paced the stage kind of stalking Clinton, this was mentioned by commentators. But what I’ve never seen mentioned by anyone is when he “gallantly” Led her back to center stage at the finale, his palm in the small of her back.