Oh, those women politicians. So smart. So accomplished. Why can’t they just be more … likable?
We’re calling BS. In fact, we’re calling it #LikabilityBS. And if you’re already as tired as we are of this everything-old-is-new-again campaign, we invite you to join us in calling out the media when we see them trivializing women elected officials, women candidates, or any powerful women by focusing on their supposed personality defects – or supposed problems with their dancing, their hair, their wardrobes, their unladylike language, or anything else that anyone thinks they need to make over to please the boys.
Here are some great ways to say: you don’t have to like them; you don’t have to like me; but you do have to take women seriously, and you do have to start covering our substantive positions and issues.
What you can do:
- Call out the BS on social media. It’s easy to re-post and collect frowny faces, but the point is to educate and mobilize:
- Educate by posting and showing people the BS going on;
- Beyond posting on your own social media pages, amplify your message by writing comments on the Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram accounts for the media channel, reporter, pundit, etc., that you want to call out;
- Mobilize by telling people what they can do: for example, sharing a letter to the editor that you’ve written (see below for how-to), or linking people to this page telling them how they can fight the #likabilityBS
- Ask people to retweet or share your social media posts and comments
- Educate by posting and showing people the BS going on;
- Write a letter to the editor: Most print and online media have a “letters to the editor” section, and this is a great way to reach the public. Criticize a publication for engaging in #likabilityBS or praise it for giving good coverage, or take it to task for not talking about substantive issues – you choose how to frame the discussion. Some newspapers have specific requirements: for example, that letter writers must be local to their distribution area or be subscribers – so be sure to check their rules! In general, letters to the editor are most likely to be printed if they are:
- short – aim for 250 words or shorter
- from you as an individual, not as a representative of a group
- clear – let people know exactly what you’re talking about. If you’re responding to something the newspaper published (as opposed to something going on in society in general), refer to it specifically by the title and date of the article.
- to the point – talk about one thing, not everything that’s on your mind.
- written in a reasonable tone – avoid nastiness and DON’T YELL!!!!
- written with proper grammar, syntax, spelling and punctuation – use your computer’s editing functions, ask a friend to read it over. Newspapers have editors, but they’re far more likely to print something that’s accurate to begin with.
- Use the same tools and techniques to thank and compliment the media when they get it right!
- Follow and support independent media and voices and spread the word:
- Progressive Voices provides politically progressive content to consumers via mobile device and online
- Free Speech TV is a national, independent news network committed to advancing progressive social change
- Media Matters for America is a progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media
- ResistanceLive is a daily broadcast on Facebook, YouTube and iTunes that provides political updates for the Resistance, brought to you by Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin
- Local AM radio station Real Talk 910 broadcasts forward-thinking political talk and opinions featuring Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann and Norman Goldman.
Graphic © Walt Disney’s Cinderella, Little Golden Book adapted by Campbell Grant
