Election Mudslinging

For the upcoming elections there have been many mudslinging campaigns on TV. This he said, she said and other childish sayings have unfortunately carried over into the debate forum in the form of sexist sayings. Now we often her sayings such as "be a man", "rub some dirt in it" or "man up" between friends in a joking forum. Lately, however, this language has apparently carried over to politics. Ruth Marcus talks about this in her article entitled "Manning Up". She addresses the fact that in our society having "cajones" is tough and not having them is wimpy and the fact that ideology like this leaves little room for women to work with when we automatically don't have them. What I found most interesting however was the fact that the people who were saying things like "man up" and "grow a pair" were women on the campaign trail. The fact that it was women promoting this type of mudslinging was weird to me, especially because biologically women cannot "man up" or "grow a pair" themselves. In an age where women are constantly fighting for equal rights why would they promote the other side of the spectrum, male stereotypes, when it inversely affects their cause as well. In light of all the bad talking I whole heartedly agree with Marcus, people, especially politicians, don't need to man up they need to grow up.