Women
Why Do Women Have to be Likable?
As Tina Fey and Amy Poehler said, bitches get sh*t done.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, unlikeable means “not having pleasant or appealing qualities.” When people say Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton are unlikeable, this is what they mean.
Why do women have to be likable? Media or pundits never call out men for their unlikability. When, during the 2016 presidential election, did anyone say “Trump’s unlikability is going to be a problem for him”? They said it over and over and over again about Hillary Clinton, though.
She’s not warm enough, she doesn’t smile enough, her voice is too jarring, she’s too smart (!), she’s unlikable. Trump has been accused by over 20 women of sexual assault and sexual harassment, he and his dad were sued twice by the DOJ for refusing to rent to black people, he called Mexicans rapists and wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S., but Hillary wasn’t likable.
And now we’re hearing about Kamala Harris’s unlikability “problem.” If Biden doesn’t run in 2024, VP Harris is one of the choices for president. But according to the media, people don’t like her. What people? No one ever calls my house with one of these surveys or polls, and if they did, they would find two liberals who love Kamala Harris.
Likability is very important for women. We’re supposed to be warm and fuzzy, maternal to the core, ready with a hug or a plate of cookies. Always smiling, never assertive or aggressive, always standing slightly behind the men. Fuck that.
I’m a bitch, and I own my bitchiness with great pride. I’ve survived awful violence and sexual assault, and I have a right to be a bitch. My bitchiness is protective of the people I love, it defends equality and social justice, my bitchiness stands up to racism and misogyny and hate.
Kamala Harris put sexual predators in prison. I love her. I wanted her to be president, and frankly, I still do. I am tired to my bones of old white men in the Oval Office. White men don’t have to be likable to be president, they just have to be breathing.
Likable women are boring. They’re like Stepford wives, with their saccharine giggles and constant deferring to men. Michelle Bachmann only ran for congress because her totally not gay husband, Marcus, said she could. Who does that?
And ya know what? If I’d gone through what Hillary Clinton went through re: Bill’s little problem, I’d be unlikable, too. Bill Clinton not only had an affair, but that affair went public, he got blow jobs in the Oval Office, and then he lied about all of it under oath. Hillary Clinton most likely told him if he ever did anything like that again, no one would find his body.
Kamala Harris has been accused of sleeping her way to power, which is flat-out wrong. Give me the name of a man who’s been accused of sleeping his way to power. Go ahead, find a name. I’ll wait.
She didn’t, FYI. She got to where she is on her own, thanks to her incredible intelligence, her education, and her dedication to service. Just like Hillary Clinton.
The next time you hear that a woman is unlikable, support her. Odds are, she’s a little liberal, a little flawed, very intelligent, and scares the absolute shit out of a lot of men.
