Oh ffs, Barack. Really? Really? You don’t know better than this?
Instead of leaving the Bay Area Thursday after what would have normally been a quiet two-day fundraising trip, President Obama faced some criticism for calling California’s Kamala Harris “the best-looking attorney general in the country.”
Obama’s comments came at the second of two fundraisers in Atherton Thursday and began with praise for Harris’ performance as attorney general.
“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’d want in anybody who is administering the law and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said. “She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country.”
Actually no. You have to be careful to, first of all, talk about her as you would talk about anyone you consider a professional colleague as opposed to someone you’re flirting with, and leave it at that. You don’t clear your throat by saying “yes, yes, she’s good at her job” so that you can rush on to say she’s hawt.
Florida’s (hardcore Repub) AG Pam Bondi is going to be so jealous!
WHAT DO YOU WOMIN WANT WE CAN’T EVEN HOLD THE DOOR FOR YOU AND BE NICE1!//
Oy gevalt. Yep, them lady attorneys sure do get them boners popping! And that’s important. Shit.
I even know of Kamala Harris, her anti-gang work in LA put her on the radar of the national media, what, two years ago or so? She’s amazing.
I thought Jay Pharoah was doing the Obama impersonation nowadays, and not Tim Meadows…
“You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant”
Have to. Not want to.
You don’t want to acknowledge that she’s intelligent and good at her job or whatever else that actually matters. You just have to acknowledge those things as a prelude to talking about her looks.
Melissa McEwan tweeted about this today, and immediately there were people shouting her down about how it was ‘just a compliment’, that focusing on this takes away focus from ‘real misogyny’, and they bet she was just jealous because she wouldn’t get such compliments.
Sadly, it’s the kind of casual, “benevolent” sexism that would still fly here in France. There’s this widely accepted meme that were are more “free and enlightened” than “puritan” America, and it can be said to have positive results, like acceptance of non-married couples and single parents; but it can also be a handy tool for maintaining the status quo in the matter of gender roles and the policing of women’s lives.
And what would Obama have said if she weren’t physically attractive and stylishly dressed? “She also happens to be the frumpiest AG is the country”?
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