In fact, the whole
Linda McMahon gender-gap business
is missing a much larger point about feminism and politics. Who cares if pro wrestling is irredeemably sexist? Is American politics irredeemably sexist?
Let’s go back to that
Senate race in Washington State
. Republican challenger Dino Rossi was preferred by men in the Time poll by 15 points. Democratic incumbent Patty Murray was preferred by women by 31 points. That is a 46-point gap—not between Democrats and Republicans, or atheists and evangelicals, or Hutus and Tutsis, but between men and women.
Forty-six points! That is insane. Why do people who live in the same state and maybe sleep in the same house see the politically situation completely differently, depending on what kind of genitals they have? How did politics get so profoundly fractured along gender lines? Are men that much more emotionally wounded by the collapse of the economy? Where is Robert Bly when you need him? There’s a lot more going on here than the question of whether Linda McMahon makes Connecticut ladies uncomfortable. Maybe the Times could put a reporter or two on it.
