Misogynist Male Candidates Rewarded on Election Day

If you are a man running against a woman in political race, it seems that it would behoove you to make sexist attacks on your opponent. According to a study sponsored by by Women's Media Center, the WCF Foundation, and Political Parity, when a female candidate has sexist remarks lobbied at her, support for her drops significantly. How lovely.

This is how the study worked: 800 people listened as an exchange between two fictional political candidates— Jane Smith and Dan Jones— was read. Half of the participants heard Jane Smith being attacked over policy issues; the other half listened as Jane Smith was called an "ice queen," "prostitute," and "mean girl." Those who heard the latter, clearly sexist argument were 21% less likely to support Smith, whereas her support dropped only 10% in the other, policy-based group. In other words, people were more likely to support a woman with dubious actual politics than a woman who was more or less characterized — fairly or not — as a bitch.

Interestingly, while voters are turned off by the prospect of a "mean girl" politician, the study also found that female candidates do themselves a disservice by refusing to dignify those attacks with a direct response. Jane Smith gained back some support when study participants heard her call the remarks "inappropriate." Even more support was regained when they heard the attacks referred to as "sexist, divisive rhetoric." So ladies, when you are running for office, remember to be nice and sweet and friendly, but not too nice and sweet and friendly. The voters clearly have a very fine line they'd like you to walk.

In response to this culture that encourages men to exhibit misogynistic behavior, the Women's Campaign Forum launched an initiative Thursday called "Name It, Change  It." Their goal is to call out examples of sexist behavior in political campaigns — regardless of political affiliation — and then address them head on. In conjunction with this campaign, they produced this awesome video parody:

Now, consider this: All sexist remarks made in the video above were actual comments made about real female candidates. Not quite as funny any more, is it?

So, what can you do to get involved? For starters, you can go to the Name It, Change It website to report sexist media coverage, take the media equality pledge, and/or sign up for action alerts. Turn off news shows that use that sort of language. Refuse to support candidates who use sexism as a weapon. Vote. To paraphrase Ghandi, be the change you want to see in the political world.