[ad_1]
The Guardian
Neera Tanden’s relentless bullying should disqualify her from Biden’s cabinet
It’s not fair that women are consistently judged harder than men – but we don’t fix it by forcing women to meet lower standards Neera Tanden: Queen of Punches Picture this: a very powerful white man pushes a reporter after she asks a question he doesn’t like. Unacceptable behavior, right? So why isn’t there more outrage over the fact that Neera Tanden, Joe Biden’s candidate for head of the Federal Bureau of Management and Budget, once assaulted a journalist? In 2008, Tanden was a senior aide to Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign and accompanied Clinton to what she thought was a softball interview. Faiz Shakir, then editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress, asked Clinton about his support for the war in Iraq. Tanden did not appreciate this and, according to a witness, punched him in the chest. “I didn’t hit him, I pushed him,” Tanden told The New York Times last year. As if that somehow makes things better, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding Tanden’s appointment. However, most of it revolved around her tweets: the woman really likes to tweet. Her social media activity appears to have caused more upheaval and outrage than the fact that she once pushed a reporter for asking her boss an insufficiently deferential question. Why aren’t people more outraged? Well, because there’s still an assumption that women can’t really hurt men, on the one hand. Especially brunette and Asian women, who are often stereotyped as gentle, passive and submissive. If Tanden was a black woman who had punched a white man, I think the reaction would have been very different. I think a lot of racist tropes about angry black women would have raised their heads. Serena Williams, for example, can’t hit a tennis ball without someone accusing her of being violent and aggressive. And, of course, if he had been a white man pushing a brunette woman, the Liberals would be hugging. As it stands, the punching incident is being treated as some sort of punchline and the real attention is on the Republican hypocrisy around Tanden. combative tweets. “We had a president who used his Twitter account like a ram,” said Claire McCaskill, a former Democratic senator on MSNBC. “Now all of a sudden, is it a disqualification for someone to sit in the cabinet who has pledged their own opinion on Twitter?” their own double standards. If you think that a powerful brunette woman pushing a dark-haired man for no legitimate reason isn’t a problem, ask yourself why. Bullying should never be okay, no matter who is doing it. Especially since Tanden does not seem to have remorse about what she did. Indeed, she seems to think that her fighting spirit is a sort of badge of honor. Having said all of this, I understand why some people are eager to give Tanden a free pass. Women don’t often make mistakes. We have to work harder than men to get to the top and we have to work harder to stay there. There is very little room for any mess: a 2016 study, for example, found that women receive much harsher penalties than men for ethical violations at work. And a study commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation found that 80% of reports on female CEOs involved in a crisis cited the CEO as the source of the problem. When a man was a CEO, however, only 31% of articles attributed the company’s problems to him. It is not fair that women are consistently judged more harshly than men. But we’re not correcting that by forcing women to meet lower standards – we are correcting it by forcing men to meet higher standards. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a world with more women Donald Trumps, I want a world with more men Jacinda Ardern. Just because men behave badly doesn’t mean Tanden’s behavior should be tolerated. I don’t care if she’s, as Biden puts it, “smart as hell.” I don’t care about his qualification; her harassment without memory should disqualify her immediately. If you can’t manage your temper, you shouldn’t be managing the budget. Women Who Ditched Grooming in 2020 It’s been several months since I’ve plucked my eyebrows – which are now starting to look like a wise old man’s. Looks like I’m not the only one. Mintel research shows that 51% of UK beauty and personal care consumers feel a reduced need to pluck and sting due to the pandemic. The Guardian takes a look at some of the women who have said goodbye to their beauty routines. Homophobic Hungarian politician surprised with his pants down in lockdown orgy Brussels police recently held a private party where there were at least 25 naked men. Many were politicians, including József Szájer, a senior member of the right-wing party in power in Hungary. Szájer, who has now resigned, is a massive homophobe who has bragged about rewriting Hungary’s constitution to define marriage as a heterosexual institution in 2011. He turns out to be a hypocrite as well. ‘My husband does the laundry’ Angela Merkel was recently asked at a tech conference if she uses smart technology at home or if she has turned on the washing machine herself. She responded by saying “my husband does this”. Looks like she made a wise choice when it comes to a husband. Laverne Cox suffers a transphobic attack in Los Angeles Cox became the first transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in Orange is the New Black. Alas, fame does not protect you from bigotry and harassment. Your regular reminder that Katie Porter is a legend MK Katie Porter – a California Democrat who was recently reelected in the former Orange County Republican – is famous for her effortless dismantling of sufficient men. His latest victim is Steven Mnuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury. He sneered at her if she was a lawyer (she certainly is), and she elegantly tore up a new one. 10/10, I would recommend watching. Gitanjali Rao is Time’s Child of the Year for 2020 The Colorado teenager invented a mobile device to test for lead in drinking water and an AI-powered app to detect early signs of cyberbullying. She is 15 years old. Pet-riarchy2020 week appears to be a year for party stowaways. Earlier this month, a little owl was found in the tree at Rockefeller Center; this week an Australian family found a young koala hanging on the Christmas tree in their living room. He seems to have sneaked in when the doors were open, hoping for a tasty snack. Unfortunately, the Christmas tree was made of plastic.
[ad_2]
Source link