Wow, Was I Naive!
Or have the Democrats only temporarily doubled-down on their strategy on gender politics?
Three-and-a-half years ago I expressed hope about how our first Second Gentleman, Kamala Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff, might champion the cause of advocating a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting after divorce. I envisioned him, from the highly visible and credible position of being the Vice President’s spouse, visiting state legislatures around the nation to convey the science on the beneficial effects of joint custody and his own personal story of how it worked for him, his kids, his wife and his ex-wife.
I expressed that hope in this 8-minute video.
But no such effort was made. The closest he got was a smattering of support for increased Paternity Leave.
And on August 20, at the Democratic National Convention, shortly after the Republicans highlighted Hulk Hogan as their exemplar of masculinity, shortly after the Democrats and others predictably tut-tutted yet another MAGA display of machismo, here is how the Democrats, in the person of their candidate’s husband, took advantage of their perfect opportunity to deliver a counterpoint to MAGA masculinity with their own tribute to warm, confident, powerful male nurturance and a pledge to do everything they can to replicate and support it throughout the land.
Ever the optimist, I would guess that Emhoff in fact appreciates how much he, his kids, his wife and his ex-wife have been blessed by Shared Parenting and I hope that he, with his wife’s support, will soon overrule the Democratic strategists doubling down on the Democratic Party as the Mommy Party.
I am pretty sensitive to sexism against men---even little stuff. I haven't been watching the Democratic Convention but I did see Bill Clinton's speech. I noticed pretty quickly that it seemed all of the people focused on in the audience during the speech were women. Of course this did not apply to wide shots, but individuals or couples seemed to always be women. I reran the video and counted the individuals and couples that the cameras zoomed in on in the audience. I counted 16 individual women, 1 individual man, 4 female couples, and 2 mixed couples. I did not include in the final count when they zoomed in on Hillary and Chelsea Clinton (6 times) or Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff (twice). So the total was 26 women and 3 men. This cannot be coincidental. They purposely ignored men. Sure, this is really petty stuff, but it shows the complete gynocentrism and pandering to women by the Democratic Party. This has to stop.
I don't know who was controlling the cameras----a very good question, but probably one that would be very difficult to find the answer. As far as the network goes, I was switching back and forth among the channels and they all seemed to be receiving the same feed.