Leo's human relations primer. Today's topic -- sexism. What it isn't:
Gov. Ed Rendell made some blunt remarks that could be construed as insulting, if not sexist, about Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, chosen for Homeland Security chief by President-elect Barack Obama.
[. . .]
Rendell's words were picked up by an open microphone at the podium of the National Governors Conference, held yesterday morning at Independence Hall.
"Janet's perfect for that job," Rendell is heard to say. "Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19, 20 hours a day to it."
What it is:
You have to wonder if there's a little bit of Mike Tyson in Sean Avery.
[. . .]
How else to explain how, after being warned explicitly by NHL authorities to watch his mouth during on-ice trash-talking sessions, he essentially took the trash talk to the public airwaves, disparaging ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert as "sloppy seconds" for her relationship with Calgary defenceman Dion Phaneuf?
So, in the one example, we have what some might consider a mean comment -- she has nothing but free time! -- said in such a context that it might be viewed as stereotypical (women without families have no real lives!) that was apparently offered at least partly in jest. In the other, we have a misogynistic loudmouth who revealed in two especially ugly words exactly what he thought of half of the human race.
Clear now?
