Don't Tell Me We're Not Ready For a Female President
Of course we are.
Recently, the New York Times ran an article titled, “Will the U.S. Ever Be Ready For a Female President?” Before I read the article, I was already incensed. This deflated, short-sighted question that sat in the place of a headline begged anyone who catches a glance to question whether or not women are capable or electable enough to hold the highest office.
Are women respected in society and will Americans value them in a way that reflects their worth? Most of us are keenly aware of the answers to these questions now. It does no good to harp on them. To me, it’s crystal clear that the answer for the future really depends on how we as a culture decide to talk about and treat women as we move forward.
Provocative as it may seem, the article’s throughline goes right along with the conventional thinking that enabled an inept Trump to defeat two highly qualified women in devastatingly close elections. The Times reporters shared perspectives from national leaders who weighed in on ideas of electability of women, perceived mistakes made by Harris in 2024, and what conditions would have to be in order for this unlikely phenomenon to occur.
If these reporters really wanted to say something worthwhile, they should have asked some helpful questions. What are we doing to make sure that a female candidate has an even playing field? What long-standing misogynistic ideologies, present even in news outlets like the New York Times, have been in our way of electing a female president? Or perhaps, what do the Russians have against female candidates, and how do we get foreign interference out of our elections?
Something with some punch. Not something that you cringe at the thought of your 10-year-old daughter overhearing, as she contemplates a cruel, limited world unlikely to change.
As I pondered the Time’s article, a memory of one of my favorite public protests crossed my mind, and it feels appropriate to share it with you now.
In the midst of oppressive occupation of Prague by Soviet troops, a Soviet general and some municipal leaders erected a monument of a Russian tank, supposedly to pay tribute to Russia’s liberation of the city after World War II. In reality, it was likely just another piece of propaganda and an intimidation tactic placed to remind citizens of who was in charge and how much power they had.
When the occupiers left decades later, remnants of their politics and their presence remained. This included the monument. Right in the center of town, high up on a pedestal, with it’s barrel pointed to the West (aka to new thought, new freedoms, and social change).
A young art student and his friends, brimming with pent up frustration, snuck to the tank one night and painted the whole thing this sweet, pale shade of pink. They also adorned a matching giant middle finger to its top.
The artist, David Cerny, was arrested for hooliganism, and under pressure from the Kremlin, officials had the tank repainted its original color. In protest of Cerny’s arrest, some parliament members with diplomatic immunity repainted it pink. It went through this cycle every couple of weeks- army green, baby pink, army green, baby pink. Status quo, push back, status quo, challenge, status quo, defiance.
Finally the monument was removed, and the tank was relocated in its determinedly pink glory. The artistic protest was a conversation starter, a visible instigator of action against oppression, and a chink in the tank’s armor. Cerny’s art surely didn’t change everything, but it didn’t ignore it either.
For Cerny and his fellow artists, the color pink screamed PIG. It insulted their aggressors over and over again, and symbolically reclaimed citizen ownership of the city.
To me, in America, I feel like women and girls are in the midst of our own rebellious painting and repainting of pink. Not so much pig pink, but more in the hot pink, magenta, girl power spectrum. We showcase our strength, in the face of those who tell us we are lesser than men. We keep at it, even when there’s backlash. We persist day after day, year after year, decade after decade.
And as we go, we gain more freedoms, justice, and respect. Lately, we’ve been painting a lot of pink.
We cheer on a campaign to break the glass ceiling, we flood the streets with bubblegum colored pussy hats, and we cheer Serena as she reigns over everyone. We smash the box office in a Barbie-empowered summer, we sell out Beyoncé and Taylor stadiums, and we celebrate as sexual predators are prosecuted and pay consequences.
We raise up a badass, joyful, inspiring candidate wearing some incredible, berry-colored power suits.
The results of this election have temporarily repainted our country army green. I feel it personally, like their paint roller ran right over me. There seems to be a resurgence of traditional, old-school perspectives from tired old, racist, sexist playbooks. The people who would reject pink as weak and domicile are inexplicably popular. Like Joe Rogan, I honestly can’t see what people see there.
It’s nothing we haven’t faced before. It’s nothing we haven’t painted over. It’s nothing we can’t paint over again, and better in another election year.
Since November, I’ve heard anger and frustration and regret about running Kamala because of her gender. I have heard that Democrats can’t run a woman and expect to win. They say, if this perfect female candidate lost to this very flawed and messy, scandal-ridden male candidate, no woman can beat any man. The very premise of the NYT article might as well have said it.
We must keep protesting this way of thinking loud and clear- not necessarily on old monuments, but definitely in our own heads. Let’s challenge the invasion of toxic masculinity that talks us into believing women can’t move forward. Let’s reframe the narrative, and send those oppressive ideas away with a bold statement.
Let’s ask a new question: how imminently soon are we winning back the White House, and what force on earth can keep us from painting it pink?
With love and hope for the future,
Stephanie
How do you now look at Vice President Harris, and how do you see a way forward after this election?
Read more:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21502552.2016.1149387
I look at Kamala as a strong role model for women. She ran an energetic, enlightened, joyful campaign with Walz, in a short period of time with little preparation for candidacy. She refused to get drawn into the base name calling and baiting and held herself above that garbage. I know a lot of people faulted her for that, said she was 'snooty', but they would have found fault if she'd gotten into the trenches w MAGA. She was held to a ridiculous standard, with the goalposts constantly moving, as was Biden. When she lost, she conceded gracefully and did her job as President of the Senate, swearing in new members and certifying the election. Many of the incoming MAGA representatives even refused to shake her hand and stood a distance from her in photos, but she remained smiling and kept her cool, showing amazing grace under pressure and disdain. I admire her more every day and I hope our daughters and granddaughters will see what a strong, kind and compassionate person she is and that those things can go together in a leader. History will prove that she is heads above the Tangerine Terror and his ilk in every way.
It’s not that we’re not ready… there are a number of female governors…. It’s just that there are a huge number of misogynistic assholes in our country who just can’t live with the thought of a female president. It’s just as simple as that.