Arianna is complaining about Arnold’s sexism on her blog:
Going through the morning papers, I scan over the pictures of Arnold’s team of economic advisors — not a double X chromosome among them. In a state where there are tens of thousands of women in positions of power, including both U.S. Senators, there was not even one woman who Arnold thought worthy of adding to the mix?
We need greater diversity, not more of the same old boys club — emphasis on the boys — that got us into this mess in the first place.
It’s not just a matter of gender. It’s a matter of priorities. A woman governor, particularly one who is also a mother, would bring a whole different perspective to the problems facing California.
My priorities would be the priorities a mother has for her children: a quality education; affordable and readily accessible health care; and a safe clean world to live in. No mother in California should have to send her kids off to crumbling, decaying, rat-infested schools – as hundreds of thousands of them currently do. No mother should have to sit in a hospital waiting room for 20 hours waiting for a doctor to see her sick child because she can’t afford health insurance for herself and her kids – but that’s the case right now. And no mother should have to worry about whether her children will grow up in world choked with polluted air and water, which is why we need a sane energy policy that protects the environment, stresses fuel efficiency, and invests in clean and renewable energy.
This seemed like a dubious argument to me, until it hit me: Fathers are insensitive clods who care not a whit about their children’s education, health care, and living conditions. In fact, fathers are pleased when their children are sent to “crumbling, decaying, rat-infested schools”, when their children have to “sit in a hospital waiting room for 20 hours,” and when their world is “choked with polluted air and water.” Silly me; I forgot that fathers (and men generally) are evil.
But I’m not just not sure how to square that with the fact that Arianna’s kids left her house to go live with their father when she decided to run for governor. Maybe they’re all boys, a.k.a evildoers-in-training.
More seriously, it’s just as disgusting for a woman to argue that she ought hold some political office because she’s a woman as it would be for a man to do so. It’s sexism, plain and simple. Blech.
