It’s no secret that many of the extremists on the far right of the political spectrum are looking for any and all weapons they can use to attack U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, and that includes heavy doses of racism and sexism. Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, is a hell of a lot tougher than a good number of the far-right extremists(Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck, etc.) realize. For this blog, however, I am choosing to focus on the sexism being faced by Sotomayor.
Here is a quote (as one example) from Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity (quoting others) I found at Think Progress:
HANNITY: [W]hat do the lawyers who have appeared in her courtroom think of her judicial temperament? Well, not much. The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary solicits commentary from practicing attorneys about our federal judges. Now here’s what some lawyers who have argued before Judge Sotomayor had to say about her. Quote, She is a terror on the bench. She is overly aggressive, not very judicial. She behaves in an out-of-control manner. She is nasty to lawyers.
Take another look at the quote and consider the sexism. HINT: The sexism in Hannity’s words are coded. Questioning Sotomayor’s “judicial temperament,” referring to her as “a terror on the bench,” saying she is “overly aggressive” is “out of control” and is “nasty to lawyers.” How often do you hear these used as negative qualities in discussions of males? It’s very rare. You see, these are all aggressive qualities and women, in the eyes of weak men, are simply not supposed to be aggressive. These are words used to label many strong women … words people use when they can’t use the so-called “b-word” in our politically-correct society.
Think Progress (check out the end of the story to see how Sotomayor was really portrayed):
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/28/hannity-sotomayor-terror/
Try to stomach this video from Hannity, who compares the comments about Sotomayor to comments (flattering comments) made about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito. It’s classic sexism. Men are allowed to be aggressive, but women are not. Men are praised for being aggressive. Meanwhile, women are criticized for it.
