Introducing a new, month-long series, where I’ll be keeping a watchful eye on the meeja* and picking out some of the sexist-shite coverage of the General Election campaign.
Episode 1
From Andrew Pierce in today’s Daily Mail:
Ugly rumours may cost Cash the cutie dear
“Joanne Cash, the Conservative Party Alister, has been tipped for Cabinet office if she wins the marginal seat of Westminster North.
Tatler magazine has named her as one of the ten Tories to watch and Vogue included her as one of the top 50 women of the age.
Small wonder, then, that Ms Cash is pre-eminent among the telegenic Cameron cuties whom the Tories will be hoping to wheel before the cameras in the weeks ahead.”
Meanwhile, here’s Jan Moir in the same paper:
War of the wives: How did Sarah Brown and SamCam compare in the fashion stakes?
“Together, this trio of attractive, clever, multitasking, modern, juggling, have-it-all career women make up the political First Wives Club.
For better or worse, it is their mordant destiny to be the life partners of our great leaders, reduced to totems at their sides…..
….So scramble the helicopters, here come the girls!”
And joy of joys, this one even comes with some pics:
“Sarah Brown on the campaign trail yesterday”
“and Samantha Cameron wearing a smart jacket combination”
Blimey, you’d have thought someone would have told them they still had the tags on their clothes…..
General Election 2010: The battle of the leaders’ wives
And in a classic case of you’ve got to be fucking kidding me! Labour Party stalwarts have decided it’s a good idea to stereotype all women under the age of 40, by labelling this targeted demographic: “Take a Break women”
Gahhhhhh!
*If you see any glaring examples of sexist shite during the General Election campaign that you think I may have missed, feel free to email them to me at cathryne_1999 at hotmail.co.uk
Too Much To Say For Myself 
Yuck, that Jan Moir piece. Why am i not surprised?! Was reading about ‘Take a Break women’ earlier in the week – thanks for that, Labour.
Lucky me, because of my job, I get every single newspaper every day, so I saw these articles. I know I shouldn’t be surprised by how much the meeja are concentrating on the wives’ clothes, but it really is depressing. Love the series, Cath, and I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
ugh it’s just so awful isn’t it? why on earth have we gone back (?) to the days where we define women by who they’re married too?
Brilliant. I was reading some of those articles and banging my head against the table. I’m writing my MSc dissertation on women, feminism and political ideology, so I will be keeping a close eye on this blog.
Jessica
http://www.metheringhamowlett.co.uk
I am SO pleased that someone is following and more importantly, flagging up this rubbish. Why as women are we always projected by HOW WE LOOK and not WHAT WE THINK! Women are still massively under-represented in parliament, we still do not have equality as is obvious from reading election shite like this. Women now are led to believe that the best that can hope to achieve is to be another stupid Jordan or WAG wannabe where looks are everything – they’re not.
If you haven’t already read this book then do it, do it today, right now ‘Living Dolls – the return of sexism’ by Natasha Walter. It’s spot on as are you for flagging this crap up. Loving this.
NuttyNatter
Thanks for the blog. I used to hate margaret Thatcher but even she was less conservative than the women we see associated with the election campaign these days.
I still remember when members of the Conservative party decided to blame single mothers and their offspring for all the economic and social problems in our society. This led to others saying saying single mothers were vermin and should be gassed. I hope they don’t get back in. But I can’t tell the difference between the three main parties, they are all just blokes in suits, some with smiling wives.Oh my God(dess) what is happening ?It’s like evolution in reverse.
Great series Cath. It should be fun (in a perverted sort of way).
Ugh Jan Moir, bigot extraordinairre, gets to write about women in the election. The fact she’s the one assigned to this story shows what her paper thinks of us all.
Btw I love that Nick Clegg’s wife isn’t following him around the campaign trail because she has a job, life and the kids to look after. Such a sensible, no nonsense answer and a pretty decent example to women.
Agh and I just referred to her by her marital status – brainwashed I tell you.