After the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made a mark in history with the addition of the very first female vice president.
Having faced countless acts of hate, degradation and defamation Harris’s determination and perseverance was inspiring to young girls. However, her reasons for having to protect herself were outrageous.
During Harris’s campaign, multiple male figures dealt their share of sexist slander and false claims regarding Harris’s character. During Rush Limbaugh’s Aug. 14, 2020 radio show, he said, “It is no secret but public knowledge that Kamala Harris slept her way up into California political life by being a very public escort and mattress for California Democrat kingmaker Willie Brown.”
Referring to Harris’s previous relationship with Brown, Harris’s sexual history became an outlandish point of judgement for her political standing. Having ended the relationship eight years prior to running for her first elected office in 2003, the sexualization of women in power is all but uncommon to the political world.
The normalization of derogatory terms specifically aimed at women has become a major problem for society and especially for women. Senior Aauysha Adhikari elaborated on the issue. “All of these derogatory words are only used towards women to objectify and belittle them. It pushes the idea that a woman’s value decreases when she is sexually active, and nowadays people use this term so regularly we don’t even think for a second what the real meaning is,” she said.
This idea of invalidating Harris’s political stature escalated with the production of degrading t-shirt, hats, flags, bumper stickers and more brandishing the slogan ‘Joe and the Hoe.’
Despite many groups of people disagreeing with the election of Biden as well as his political agenda, Harris is still referred to as the “hoe” within the statement. Her name is belittled to the sexist term, while Biden’s is left alone. This is no surprise to women of today’s society.
Within modern society, the progression of women’s liberation has been a back and forth battle. Specifically in politics, women are more likely to be subject to sexist attacks and speculation of their sexual history. Harris is no exception.
With leaders of the country exposing their misogynistic thinking, society’s progress in promoting women’s power is halted. “We’re not going to have a socialist president — especially a female socialist president. We’re not gonna have it. We’re not going to put up with it!” said former president Donald Trump. It is not enough to discredit, put down and degrade women; society continues to hold onto its opinion because of the influential figures who express their sexist viewpoints.
Our country must take down the bigger misogynistic leaders and promote new leaders who promote the equality of its people. Kamala Harris being the vice president is a stepping stone in a very long journey of women’s liberation.
We owe this to women.
