Simone de Beauvoir and "The Second Sex"
This line, from an essay in We Were Eight Years in Power, by Ta-Nehisi Coates:
An equality that requires blacks to be twice as good is not equality -- it's a double-standard.
Underneath, I wrote:
Or, an equality that requires women to be twice as perfect -- also a double-standard.
After Hillary Clinton lost the election, I remember having a chat about that: the idea that post-election criticism quickly devolved into her imperfection as a candidate, and how a higher level of perfection was demanded from her than is ever expected of men. Pointing out and condemning flaws in losing candidates is hardly uncommon -- think Kerry in 2004, McCain in 2008, and Romney in 2012, among others -- but it was interesting to consider the degree to which criticism applied to her woman-ness and not her resumé. Unlike those three, much of Hillary's "imperfection" pertained to emotional stability, how poised she presented herself, and the strength of her image. (Let me be clear: this was a segment of how she was critiqued -- she also represented a Washington-based political dynasty that the country roundly rejected in 2016, powerfully won a number of urban counties, lost a staggering number of rural ones, and no matter how you parse it, with winning as the metric, ran a failed campaign.)
It's not objective statistical post-loss analysis that matters to me here -- indeed, that's fascinating -- it's the difference in tone that followed her, and will likely follow female candidates (sadly, and hopefully not) throughout my life. Coates talks about that double-standard applying to black candidates, it's not a stretch -- not at all, in any way -- to notice an analogous one for women.
That's one of the reasons why I've been quite obsessed with revisiting some of the earlier feminist writers that I really didn't know much about -- Simone de Beauvoir being the most recent. This podcast is a succinct (albeit, irritating in parts) exploration of her most famous work, and puts great context around her legacy and continued impact.
Another reason is the recent (correction: recently brought to light) slew of abhorrent male behavior that is rightly (and too late-ly, and too softly) being punished and condemned. Louis CK occupied a role of brilliance to me. Never had I seen someone write and tell jokes like him before, and when he was on his last tour, seeing him live -- so close to the stage in such a historic old theater on the night he actually recorded it -- was so special to me. Now I actually feel a great sense of remorse for paying the money that I did in support of him.
Why the media even printed his apology is beyond me, and why they couched it in terms of "accusations bringing down Louis CK's career" is even more repulsive. The story here is the double-standard of perfection, the continued subjugation (or, as de Beauvoir called it: The Second Sex), and the blatant and disgusting truth that the greatest threat to women continue to be men.
Ugh. Anyway.
