Men can have wives, daughters, sexist views
The vile language Florida Rep. Ted Yoho recently used to describe fellow Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez is unfortunately no anomaly in a society where misogyny is still very much alive.
The abusive words, in which Rep. Yoho called his colleague a ‘”f------ b----,” was only unique in its publicity and the high profiles of those involved.
This kind of behavior from a man did not come as a surprise to Ocasio-Cortez, nor to many women who took the congressman to task on social media.
“This is not new. And that is the problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a biting denouncement of Yoho’s words, using the moment and her platform as a well-known public official to start a conversation about a common experience of many women in the workforce. She is right.
The fact that the congressman felt so comfortable spewing such vitriol after he passed OcasioCortez on the steps of the Capitol shows not only the nasty political discourse of this country, but that some men simply can’t get past the stay-in-your-place mentality and accept women’s opinions.
For context, Yoho, who represents the Gainesville area, was upset because Ocasio-Cortez said that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.
To make matters worse, when called out for his sexism, Yoho turned to a tired old excuse often used to by men to justify bad treatment of women.
“Having been married for 45 years with two daughters, I’m very cognizant of language,” he said.
We hate to tell you, congressman, but if that is what you believe, you showed miserable judgment. And having a wife and daughters doesn’t automatically exempt you from being a misogynist, just as having a Black friend doesn’t mean white people can’t be racist.
As Ocasio-Cortez said in her response: “I am someone’s daughter too.”
We thank Ocasio-Cortez for speaking out. Too often women feel pressured to quietly suck it up as a part of climbing the corporate ladder. That is not how it should be.
This “culture of lack of impunity” that she described in her response is so fully ingrained in the workforce that there were still people in 2020 who were surprised to see a man use such derogatory language toward a woman. Yes, for all the woman who could relate to her experience, far too many others were shocked by it.
That is a problem as well.
The fact is, even in the hallowed halls of Capitol Hill, women face these kind of abusive words daily.
Yoho is not the first man to disrespect women, nor will he be the last, and his despicable words give a window into why the glass ceiling is upheld and disdain for women leaders remains. The men who don’t engage in bad behavior, but do not pay attention or choose to look past “locker-room talk,” also contribute to the raging misogyny that still plagues this country.
But Ocasio-Cortez is in a unique position, something she used to her advantage, making her argument all the more cogent. And she chose to use her platform to fight for verbal abuse railed against working-class women to be treated with the same disgust and ire as the verbal abuse against herself, the most admirable way to turn an impossibly denigrating comment into a substantive spotlight on the truth of misogyny in this country.