Pay close attention to what journalists are asking each candidate over the course of the upcoming presidential election.
This weekend, British Labour Party politician Liz Kendall finally had enough of a certain double standard, when she was asked how much she weighs by Daily Mail political editor Simon Walters.
Walters was attempting to make a style comparison between Kendall and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton by first comparing where both women shop, moving on to point out their similar body type. Rather than nervously giggling his inquiry away or politely declining to answer, Kendall did not hesitate to tell Walters to “f*** off” before pulling herself together and requesting him not to “print that.”
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Clearly Walters ignored Kendall’s request not to publish her blunt response, and while I would love to go into detail about his lack of morality, I would like to point out that by publishing that portion of the interview at all, Walters only placed Kendall in a prime position as a female role model.
“I just think it’s unbelievable that in the 21st century women still get asked such very, very different questions than men,” Kendall told the hosts of BBC Radio Live. “I cannot wait for a world when women are judged the same as men and not by those kinds of questions.”
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We’ve watched as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton, among others, have been put under media spotlight, criticized for who wore what, who gained weight and revealed their wrinkles. Women are continually asked questions that belittle their platforms as politicians and highlight the fact that they are not men.
The truth of the matter is that journalists will continue to ask these inappropriate, irrelevant questions as long as women politicians are willing to answer them. Liz Kendall would like to inform us that our time to fight back has been long overdue.
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