It’s Not Men Who Have a Problem With Warren, It’s Banks
There seems to be a developing genre of news coverage stemming from the Massachusetts Senate race: will men have a problem with Elizabeth Warren? There was an example from October 7 and now a column by Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News.
"Some women just bug men. Hillary Clinton did (and still does). Nancy Pelosi, who has replaced Clinton as the Scary Democratic Woman in Republican fundraising appeals, surely does. And now Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has joined the club."
Just because a handful of powerful men didn’t like Elizabeth Warren doesn’t mean that male voters in general hold the same views. Even when the media argue(s) that male voters shouldn’t be sexist, columnists should be careful that they aren’t inventing the issue instead of discovering it.
It’s true that Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had plenty of foes in Washington, but make no mistake: they had an issue with what she represented, not her gender. (Although it’s not hard to find coded language in media reports that some of her foes, even inside the White House, may not have been giving her the same respect they would have given a man in her position.)
But the fact that bankers with vested interests in defeating Warren’s nomination to lead the CFPB didn’t like her is not strong evidence that male voters would feel the same way. (Also, it’s not like Warren’s replacement, her male deputy, is any more welcomed by Washington).
It’s great that Carlson otherwise understands the double standard in politics for women. But there is a disturbing trend of media coverage about Warren already saying she has a “powerful woman” image problem with men. Does she? Or is the media frame essentially creating one out of whole cloth?
Published by Kate McCarthy on 10/18/2011