Better messaging please

By Libby

Man, I really don't want to step into this but it just really bothers me. Yes, the blatant sexism in this Youtube is horrible. It's unfair, but so is the central message the video seems to be conveying, at least to me.

I'm hearing that I should be blaming Obama for not solving sexism. That he is unfit for office because he's failed to stand up against it strongly enough. But it uses mainly statements from surrogates, pundits and right wingers. The couple of direct statements by Obama were badly worded but Hillary has made equally awkward statements about him. Maybe I don't get around enough but I have yet to see those acknowledged by the heavily invested Clinton supporters nor have I seen the invested Obama supporters creating similar videos complaining about them.

And yes the graphics are especially disgusting but I've seen the same and similar ones circulating on right wing blogs for years before the primaries ever started. That's not Obama's fault. Further, even as the video decries these horribly unfair images, they use equally unfair images of Obama. There are thousands of photos of them out there and they deliberately chose the one with Obama looking disdainful. Isn't that still playing the equally bogus elitist card?

Sorry, this doesn't look so much like a defense of women or a outcry against sexism as much as it looks like a hit piece on Obama to me. I don't see what it hopes to accomplish. I loathe sexism and spent the greater part of my life trying to push back against it. But it seems to me if you want to demand fairness, you have to play fair yourself. This video didn't leave me feeling sympathetic -- just irritated -- and I support the feminist cause, however imperfectly.

Whoever made this video should take the advice Hillary gives at the end of the speech. Move beyond rhetoric, move beyond recognition of problems to working together to build the common effort to have the common ground we hope to see.