{"id":17054,"date":"2013-04-05T15:31:40","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T22:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17054"},"modified":"2013-04-05T17:13:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-06T00:13:02","slug":"on-the-best-looking-attorney-general-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17054","title":{"rendered":"On &#8220;the best looking Attorney General in the country&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/kamala-harris-and-obama1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"kamala-harris-and-obama\" width=\"600\" height=\"265\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17070\" srcset=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/kamala-harris-and-obama1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/kamala-harris-and-obama1-550x242.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So at a party fundraiser, President Obama made a sexist remark about California Attorney General Kamala Harris:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you&#8217;d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake. She also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country. It&#8217;s true! C&#8217;mon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There was much criticism, and so: <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">President Obama called Kamala Harris last night to apologize for calling her the &quot;best looking attorney general&quot; in the country.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonkarl\/status\/320236023026171904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Which was of course followed by: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2013\/04\/kamala-harris-forgives-obama-89685.html?hp=t3_3\">POLITICO: Kamala Harris lets Obama off the hook<\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/xx_factor\/2013\/04\/05\/why_obama_s_compliments_to_kamala_harris_aren_t_harmless_but_part_of_a_larger.html\">Amanda has a great post <\/a>on the social science regarding why &#8220;benevolent&#8221; sexism really isn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Tannenbaum quotes a seminal 1996 paper on the issue written by researchers Peter Glick and Susan Fiske, in which they discovered that benevolent sexism is highly correlated with hostile sexism in cross-cultural comparisons. When it comes to pressuring women into subservient societal roles, think of benevolent sexism as the carrot and hostile sexism as the stick. Glick and Fiske specifically singled out &#8220;compliments&#8221; in the workplace:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Benevolent sexism is not necessarily experienced as benevolent by the recipient. For example, a man\u2019s comment to a female coworker on how \u2018cute\u2019 she looks, however well-intentioned, may undermine her feelings of being taken seriously as a professional (Glick &amp; Fiske, 1996, p. 491-492).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even when the researchers controlled for the expression of hostile sexism, the prevalence of benevolent sexism predicted women&#8217;s secondary status in a culture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To that, I&#8217;ll add that President Obama, of all people, has a responsibility to model good behavior. He is a leader. Many people &#8211; especially Democratic men &#8211; look to Obama to model what is or isn&#8217;t acceptable behavior. If Obama acts like complimenting women on their looks in a public, professional context is correct behavior, there are thousands of men out there who will follow his lead. And thousands of women who will have to deal with that.<\/p>\n<p>Some folks have, predictably, been complaining &#8220;so we can never compliment a woman on her appearance&#8221;? It&#8217;s not so simplistic. There are good contexts, and bad contexts. If a friend of yours is at a formal even in a stunning gown, it&#8217;s perfectly polite to say &#8220;you look great!&#8221; regardless of what sex your friend is. But in a professional context, it&#8217;s not appropriate. <\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"http:\/\/colorlines.com\/archives\/2013\/04\/3_things_kamala_harris_should_be_known_for_that_dont_involve_her_looks.html\">3 Things Kamala Harris Should Be Known For That Don\u2019t Involve Her Looks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So at a party fundraiser, President Obama made a sexist remark about California Attorney General Kamala Harris: You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17054\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,39,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-in-the-news","category-the-obama-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17054"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17058,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17054\/revisions\/17058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}