07.08.2011 07:14 AM

Funny?

“Look, I’m a woman. I know you don’t give it all up at once.”

Anyone think that’s funny?  Here’s what I do know: if a man had made that comment, his political career would be over.  Full stop.

What’s your view?

17 Comments

  1. Bill M. says:

    Maybe at one time that would have been true. I don’t think it is now.

  2. que sera sera says:

    I think it’s funny. I applaud politicians who speak “off script” like a whole human and not a preprogrammed talking head of mind numbing boredom.

    I think you are right about the consequences for a male politician making jokes about his sex life. It would be viewed in a different light. But that might be partly due to the fact that men are viewed as sexual aggressors and women traditionally not so much. So women can joke and men cannot……..

    I also think the “faux prudery” is just that. I much appreciate Brit politics for the no holds barred hilarity, quick wittedness & no topic off limits atttitude. Harper looks acts & speaks like an aged and neutered Ken doll. Very creepy.

  3. Cath says:

    It works for her. Come to think of it though, if the court of public opinion gives Horwath a pass on stuff like this then it may give her and her party the nod on other things too.

  4. Blair says:

    Slutwalk v2.0 would happen. There are double standards that go both ways.

    That said, politicians will always use the tools at their disposal. Can’t Valle her if she gets away with it.

  5. JenS says:

    It might have been more funny or more insensitive if it actually made sense. I think I know what she was TRYING to say, which had the potential to reinforce sexual stereotypes that I think should be avoided, but it sorta failed.

    Sometimes stereotypes can be a little funny, but I don’t think this met that mark, either.

  6. Steve T says:

    Sure it’s a double-standard. The politically-correct Western world is full of them. Basically, if you are a white man, you’d better be very very careful as to what you say about any subject, at any time. Even if those exact same comments, from a different person, would be overlooked, accepted, or even perhaps laughed at for the intended humour.

  7. allegra fortissima says:

    Funny yes, and basically a banality, web-inflated by a “Mayflower” chik.

    Consequences for a male politician making jokes about his sex life – don’t ever try this here in North America, guys. And don’t talk dirty on the phone… or let’s say, don’t talk and 32AHget caught… 🙂

  8. Lipman says:

    The Ontario NDP website currently features no information on their team. Where are their candidates? What NDP members are running to represent Ontarians in the general election? Don’t we, the voters, deserve to know who is running for a major political party just a few months away from the election?

  9. Sam Gunsch says:

    Coarse, vulgar, crude.

    It’s the tone of some lunchroom humor on construction or on the rigs here in Alberta. Where I worked for years.
    Some laugh. Lot’s don’t.

    Can anyone imagine that it would be appropriate to bring that comment home and repeat it at the supper table with their family?

    So how it can be excused for either men or women?

    Political career: yeah, probably a man’s career would be damaged seriously or over. One weirdly sexist comment meant to be taken as dismissive humor by Don Getty during the mandatory seat-belt debate added significant damaging news coverage during an election campaign that ultimately didn’t go well for the Alberta’s PC’s and Getty.

    But then things have changed here:
    With their comments to the media, on and off the record, and in the Legislature, Ralph Klein and Stockwell Day and others in his caucus during the 1990’s made it clear they thought it OK to move discourse further toward the gutter.

    I think it was partly a manifestation of the successful every-man schtick necessary to make sure Ralph retained enough common touch with working class and especially rural voters. It helped keep up the facade that made his family of corporate directors running the government quite invisible given that the media ran with it. The tone and perspective of some writers in the two Sun newspapers and radio shock jocks aided and abetted. Don Cherry’s type of political finesse was effective here before social media enabled the slide. I wonder if maybe something cultural is going on that has also seen no class behaviors like spitting on the sidewalk become widespread after decades of absence.

    Sam Gunsch

  10. TDotRome says:

    It’s a little funny. And, no, male politicians couldn’t get away with it. But, hey, sometimes men and women are different……..you know, because they’re different.

  11. sharonapple88 says:

    I wonder if a female Conservative politician could get away with a joke like this. I suspect people let it slide with Howarth because she’s part of the NDP and is therefore suppose to be progressive, and that it’s all “tongue-in-cheek” (not to be taken seriously). If a politician from a party linked with “traditional” values, I suspect people would question the comment more. Why? Because it’s sexist. (One of the definitions of sexism is: attitudes, conditions, or behaviors that promote stereotyping of social roles.)

    Personally, I didn’t find it funny. (And it’s not a real reason for unveiling the complete platform.)

  12. Areyoukidding says:

    As a woman I found this offensive, not humourous in the slightest. Howarth is grasping at straws here. She’s really a very poor public speaker, and has a Chief of Staff who is the Poly Sci Hi ideological school of thinking akin to a South American banana republic depost. Look into it, Kinsella.

  13. Cornerstone questions says:

    Has anyone asked Andrea Horwarth about the Cornerstone Campaign?

    More questions:

    How is it that the ONDP did a fundraising campaign to buy a building and then never bought one?

    Who is Dianne O’Reggio and how is it she is no longer provincial secretary of the ONDP?

    What role did Penny Marno, ONDP Director of Administration play in authorizing expenditures attributed to the cornerstone campaign?

    Can anyone say the term “forensic audit”?

    You know, the ONDP did an extensively publicized fundraising campaign to members and supporters to buy a building…and then…what happened?

    Word has it that the ONDP membership didn’t end up buying a building, they bought “shares’ in a corporation. What kind of corporation? A private corporation?

    With a private board? Who is on this board? Are these people paid, like corporate boards? Have they released a printed report to ALL ONDP members? If they are being paid, how would ONDP members feel about that if they knew that their donations were going to pay members on a private corporate board?

    ONDP members apparently own “A” shares; a bunch of unions own “B” shares. Where are the financial reports? How it is they have not released these to the membership in the name of complete and total so-called “transparency”? How is it these reports are not public?

    Mainstream media is failing terribly when it comes to investigative journalism on these issues. The ONDP is a joke, but a very sad one, with a low level of professionalism exhibited by many key decision makers and those with influence in the “inner circle”.

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