Sexist posts on protests burn officials
Social media posts about women’s marches in U.S. cause immediate backlash
INDIANAPOLIS— A school board member in Hillary Clinton’s hometown resigned after making a derogatory reference on Twitter to the female anatomy in describing women marching against U.S. President Donald Trump. An Illinois teacher was pulled from the classroom for a tweet deemed sexist. And a freshman Indiana lawmaker was inundated with criticism over a Facebook post mocking “fat women.”
These are a handful of examples from across the U.S. of mostly male public officials who have been reprimanded, called out or disciplined over social-media posts about the women’s marches last weekend.
The rash of incidents, which range from boorish to downright vulgar, highlight how nasty political discourse has become since the presidential election. But in an era when Trump made lashing out against “political correctness” central to his appeal, the consequences for unfiltered use of social media once again demonstrate that what you say on the Internet can still hurt you.
“Very few people in public life, even today, get away with what Trump was able to get away with,” said Michael Cornfield, a George Washington University professor who studies politics in the Internet age. “I wonder what these gentlemen were thinking.”
It’s not the first time rantings on social media have sparked backlash.
Public officials for years have found themselves in trouble, even resigning, over comments that were impolitic, distasteful and sometimes racist. It’s also not strictly partisan. A Saturday Night Live writer was suspended this week after an offensive tweet about Trump’s 10-year-old son Barron. The writer, Katie Rich, deleted the tweet, briefly deactivated her account and then apologized after a social-media outcry led to calls for a boycott of the show.
Still, the number of incidents fol- lowing the women’s marches, which packed public squares in blue states and some red as well, has put a few elected officials and supervisors in an awkward spot. And it’s not clear where to draw the line.
Indiana Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma says he’s conducting social-media tutorials after posts from at least two state lawmakers.
A post by newly elected Indiana state Sen. Jack Sandlin, also a Republican, credited Donald Trump with getting “more fat women out walking than (former first lady) Michelle Obama did in 8 years.”
Sandlin, who says he didn’t knowingly share the since-deleted post, was inundated with criticism on his Facebook page and has apologized.
Bosma partially blamed “the Twitter storm created by our president,” which he said “makes people feel this is an appropriate vehicle to communicate.” He added: “We’re elected officials, we’re held to a higher standard.”
On Monday, Dathan Paterno, a school board member in Park Ridge, Ill., where Hillary Clinton grew up, resigned after he called the protests a “farce” by “vagina screechers” on Twitter.
Paterno, who did not respond to a request for comment, later deleted his social-media accounts, district Superintendent Laurie Heinz said.
He wrote in his letter of resignation that the tweets were “understandably misinterpreted.”
In the Quad Cities, along Illinois’ western border, a teacher was “removed from the classroom” for posting a view of women that “does not reflect the values” of the school, district officials said in a statement.
The teacher, Mark Kaczmarek, tweeted a photo of a1950s housewife, and commented that the protesters “all went home to make dinner.”
One online petition called his tweet “unacceptable,” while a rival petition said there is “no proof” that he “ever engaged in any kind of sexist, racist or even homophobic hate speeches in his classroom.”
A person who answered the phone at a number listed to Kaczmarek declined to comment.
In Nebraska, a retweet of an offensive joke may be the final straw for state Sen. Bill Kintner, who admitted last year to having cybersex on a state computer with a woman who later tried to blackmail him. The Republican’s colleagues on Wednesday will debate whether to expel him after he retweeted a joke implying that three women’s march demonstrators were too unattractive to sexually assault.
Other incidents were reported in Mississippi, Rhode Island and New Mexico.
Cornfield, the political science professor, said that he thought most people learned about crossing the line in social-media posts years ago during the early days of email.
“I guess now that we’ve elected the real Donald Trump some people need reminders,” he said.