Aaron at The Stopped Clock responds to my earlier comments on Hillary and the accusations of sexism in the election campaign which responded to Kara’s comments. Aaron also links to an article by Susan Faludi on the same topic in Today’s New York Times.

I suppose that in this debate we will always return to the issue of what exactly is sexism which should not be confused with Misogny and Misandry. This is HUGE debate which Faludi touches upon in her piece today when she refers to the “masculine myth,” like in, say, the coming Olympic games where there is a…mmm…segragation based on this “myth” between male and female contesters and teams?

Bottom line is that it’s possible that one day in the the very distant future there won’t be any physical and mental and ensuing cultural differences between men and women. In the real world they exist today and are evident in politics both in the public discourse in the choices that voters make.

Hence, men who have run for political office have always been celebrated or mocked on the basis of their physical appearance, their clothes, etc. which are related to their attributes as males. That suggests that women should get used to the same kind of treatment about how they look, what they wear, etc. Indeed, running for public office is in some way like going on a date or for a job interview. We can criticize all of this as being “superficial” but not as “sexist”.

At the same time, when it comes to the top national office (in a world where we still have to deal with domestic and international threats) most voters still aspire to leaders with ceetain qualities that most women don’t brag about most of the time, like having testicular fortitude.