Being taken seriously

Hillary Clinton was just asked by a U.S. serviceman, via video from Okinawa, whether she would be taken seriously by the leaders of Muslim countries where women "are regarded as second-class citizens."

Ooooo, that steely gaze left no uncertainty; Clinton said quite rightly that after her meetings with high-level officials in 82 countries, she was sure there was no doubt in her ability to be taken seriously. While she noted a number of women leading countries in today's world, none of those she mentioned lead Muslim countries. Would that she would have mentioned some of the female heroines of Islam.

Comments

NewsCat said…
Discussion between myself and my roommate, we thought the questioner was being sexist. He was asking if *she* would be taken seriously in the sense that he, himself, would not take her seriously.

But it's hard to get angry at such sexism when it handed Mrs. Clinton such a great platform.

Gotta wonder if CNN would have broadcast a similar question asking if Obama would be taken seriously in all these other countries because he's a black man. It's more acceptable to be sexist than racist, especially on national television.
9:44 PM
Adele said…
Excellent comment, newscat. I think you're on the money. But the Hillcat really dispensed with that nonsense, no?
10:02 PM
Anonymous said…
It's way more acceptable to be sexist than racist. I would bet legal tender that this country will have a non-white president before it has a female pres. But if the Democrats actually want to win in 2008, they should probably just go with some white dude from the south.
8:55 PM
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