Is This The Most Sexist Debate Question Ever?

[boston bean]

In what I can only assume is an attempt to “humanize” the candidates, debate moderator Liz Benjamin asked New York Senate candidates Kirsten Gillibrand (D) and Wendy Long (R) if they’ve ever read the erotica-lite 50 Shades of Grey. Apparently New Yorkers need to know this.

To Benjamin’s defense, she doesn’t look pleased to be asking the question, and according to Policy Mic, the question was one in a series of “lightning round” questions not designed for the candidates to spend much time answering. But still the question was asked, and not during a sit-down on The View, but during a candidates debate designed to educate voters on the candidate’s positions and plans for office.

Can you imagine Jim Lehrer asking such a question during the presidential debate? Sen. Gillibrand has built an impressive record in the Senate fighting for equal pay, family leave and pushing back against reproductive rights restrictions. Her competition is a hard-right conservative who insists Republican assaults on women and the middle-class are simply figments of a deluded liberal imagination. There couldn’t be a starker contrast between the two candidates and, as such, there is plenty for the two to debate.

http://www.care2.com/causes/is-this-the-most-sexist-debate-question-ever.html

[Skittles]

1. disgusting

[boston bean]

2. I thought it was in extremely poor taste.

And to have the female moderator ask the question, tells me that they were hoping to avoid any outcry over the question, because afterall... A female asked, so how could it possibly be sexist.

[jtuck004]

3. They are selling this book faster than kids are buying Harry Potter.

To, I suspect, mostly women, the author's target market. Women who, by now, would have figured out how to tell the world they can read what they want and the world can shove it if they don't like it. But apparently not...

From wiki - Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States.[1][2] The series has sold 40 million copies worldwide,[3] with book rights having been sold in 37 countries,[4] and set the record as the fastest-selling paperback of all time, surpassing the Harry Potter series.[5] Critical reception of the novel has been mixed.

Questions outside policy tell us about the candidate. Who the person is and how they handle themselves in public is important, else we could just choose from a list of proposed policies on a web site.

Frankly, I'm not sure the important message is about "sexism" as much as it is about the thinking of people who can buy 40 million copies of a book (it's higher now, btw) yet seem more concerned that people know they have read it, afraid to admit it.

People are still worried about what the Puritans thought about everyone else having sex, I think.



And it may be just the hype over Sarah the Worthless and her non- answer about reading "anything, everything", but it strikes me that I don't see as much about men being asked if they read anything at all, much less "have you a subscription to playboy?", which I think is a fair question as well.

Do they think men don't need to read? Are they just amazed that women can read? Just because women read a book which illuminates other's behavior doesn't mean they are going to engage in it and it's insulting to infer they are that simple.

Going after the questioner instead of engaging those who want to use ad hominem attacks doesn't seem like the best way to support strong women, but I might be wrong. Again

[NightWatcher]

4. that's what happens when you let a woman moderate

I KID I KID I KID. DONT KILL ME

Crowley did a much better job than Leher did as moderator. I just couldnt let the joke go unmade.

Besides, I love broads, my mom's a chick.


I KID AGAIN!!!

[aletier_v]

5. A black guy and a white guy debating shades of gray.

I can see the logic of it if the moderator hadn't read the book.