The GOP being terrible at women’s issues is hardly news, but the candidates’ answers to a question last night about which woman they would want to see on the $10 bill were particularly revealing.
Name a woman. Literally just name any female. #CNNDebate #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/rPEhhVQ7W5
— Cynthia McCabe (@crkmccabe) September 17, 2015
Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson both said they’d like to see their wives on the $10 bill (Huckabee: “that way she can spend her own money!”); Trump first mentioned his daughter Ivanka, followed by Rosa Parks.
I guess those answers aren’t measurably worse than Jeb Bush and John Kasich’s (they nominated former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Mother Teresa, respectively) but saying you want a female family member to be put on currency A.) shows you don’t take the question seriously and B.) makes it seem as if you think being close to one woman also makes it impossible for you to be sexist.
That’s particularly obvious with Trump, who has demonstrated repeatedly throughout his run that he hates women–because we have biological functions, because we’re made of perishable cells, because we’re influential and better at forming coherent sentences than he is, etc.–but attempts to use his female family members as evidence that he’s totally not a sexist, so shut up, you bimbos.
There’s been a lot of debate over the symbolic value of placing women on the $10 bill; many women are frustrated by seeing male politicians congratulate themselves on the gesture when the debate over who to put on our currency might actually distract from the more pressing issue of the gender wage gap. To that end, Carly Fiorina’s answer made the most sense (not hard to do, in that company): “I think it’s a gesture; I don’t think it changes our history.”
Thoughts?
(via Jezebel)
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