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| From bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com |
As of October 1, 2012, the United States had a total resident
population of 314,592,000, according to Wikipedia. It is the third most populous country in the world, after China and India.
More importantly in
2009, there were 155.6 million females compared to 151.4 million males. At age
85 and over, there were twice-plus as many women as men.
In his second presidential debate with Barack Obama on Tuesday
night, Republican candidate Mitt Romney chose to categorize this female
population as “Binders Full of Women.”
Will
he get away with it when American women go to the polling stations on November
6?
Every three years, we
spend a fourth waiting and trying to guess who will be the next president of
the United States. With just 18 days to go until we find out whether it will be
Obama or Romney at the White House, Tuesday night’s debate was the coup de grâce for the GOP and their candidate, or at
least I hope so.
Anyone who has access
to the Internet is by now aware of the “Binder” boo-boo coming from the man who
could become the leader of the “Free World.”
Romney was responding
to a question about inequalities in the workplace and fair pay for women. He
talked about his time as Massachusetts’s governor and how he wanted to hire
some women for his cabinet:
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| From nydailynews.com |
“And -- and so we --
we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that
could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of
women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us
whole binders full of women.”
You need help to find
women for top posts -- in the U.S.?
His patronizing went
even further: “Now one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to
be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort. But number two,
because I recognized that if you’re going to have women in the workforce that
sometimes you need to be more flexible.”
He explained his
chief of staff had two kids that were still in school and that she couldn’t
work late because she had to be home “making dinner” and “being with them when
they get home from school.” Romney added, “Let’s have a flexible schedule so
you can have hours that work for you.”
So, for Romney, the
“binders” can be opened for women to get out and go into the kitchen to “make
dinner.”
The GOP put its foot in its mouth on a number of occasions during his
election campaign, even before this new “Binders Full of Women” blunder.
For instance, Missouri Senate Republican candidate Todd Akin in August said on national TV that in
cases of “legitimate rape,” pregnancy is rare because “the female body has ways
to try to shut that whole thing down.”
And vice presidential candidate
Rep. Paul Ryan supports a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion in
all instances, including in the case of rape and opposes abortion except in
cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
Romney’s ignorance of the region was disclosed in September by Mother Jones, which published exclusive video footage of him speaking to donors at a May 17 fundraiser. Romney
pontificated that peace in the Middle East is not possible and a Palestinian state is not feasible, telling
donors Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and
that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."
With so much riding on the outcome of the U.S.
presidential elections in our region, and with everyone waiting to see what
effect, if any, the new U.S. administration will bring to bear on the Syrian
revolution, it is frightening to think of Romney at the helm.
As an Arab woman, I have been categorized in many
different ways, but never yet put in a “binder.”
Again I wonder, will America’s women accept to be
put into binders, or will they make Romney and the GOP pay for such out of
date, patronizing, sexist and unacceptable thinking?
Good luck ladies.
Related posts:
The Savage, Civilized Man & Mitt Romney -- September 19, 2012
I agree with Obama: Rape is rape -- August 21, 2012
