Believing our own Bad Press

I saw a commercial for a "Mind of Mencia" episode where he interviewed women who didn't think that there should be a female president. In fact I had a similar conversation with my younger sister the other day. When I asked her why she said the same thing that the women in the commercial said "because we're irrational." (Then I disagreed with her and started trying to make a point and she did what she always does when we have any kind of serious discussion "I don't wanna talk about it, I just don't care." What's with that? )

So yeah, because women are irrational we aren't qualified to be president or something. Now as a woman, I'm not going to say that women aren't irrational. (Having thrown a steel toed boot at an Ex's head because he didn't wash the dishes, I really can't argue that.) What I am going to point out is that men can be just as irrational as women.

Wait What? But they don't have crazy hormonal fluctuation causing them to lose their shit for a week every month! They are spatial thinkers, rational actors, right? That's why they get drunk and start fights for no reason, get blow jobs at work (very rational, Right Mr. Clinton?), stare blankly at women's T or A, and get completely lost and refuse to ask for directions, play video games for days on end instead of cleaning their filthy house, and compete over really stupid stuff. But y'know, they don't cry about it, so it must be a rational behavior, right?

Now look, I'm not saying that all men do these things, but some do, and a lot of them I'm very confident engage in other very irrational behaviors. In fact I be that if you examined pretty much anyone's life (male or female) you would be able to find several examples of them behaving irrationally, or overreacting to something, or making the wrong decision. Not everyone in America is qualified to be president. You couldn't pick a random man off the street to do the job any more than you could a random woman.

I think that when these women who think women can't be president, my sister included, think about a woman president, they are thinking about themselves as women. (Or the stereotypes we are all brainwashed to believe represent all womankind.) They don't feel qualified or strong enough to do the job, they are putting themselves in the job, or their crazy roommate who cries for no apparent reason, or the girl at work who keeps backstabbing people. They are believing the press that lumps women together as a group "women are good at this an not at that, they like this and not that." Somehow they are forgetting that like men we are made up of a group of individuals with different strengths and weaknesses and that not all of us are qualified to be president.

If we elect a female president it will not be Jane Smith from down the block who keeps throwing out her husband because he played video games instead of doing the dishes. It will be a woman who has navigated the political waters long enough to secure the confidence of her party and their nomination. She will be just as qualified to do the job as any man in the position to be elected to the office of President, and her being a woman will just be incidental to her being a good candidate for the job.