Slagging Sotomayor

As the judge's confirmation hearing begins, the Women's Media Center looks back at sexist media low points

Published July 13, 2009 12:13PM (EDT)

In that great interview in the NYT mag, Emily Bazelon asks Ruth Bader Ginsburg whether the attacks on Sonia Sotomayor as "bullying" and "not as smart" were sexist: "I can't say that it was just that she was a woman. There are some people in Congress who would criticize severely anyone President Obama nominated. They'll seize on any handle." That said, it's not just any Obama nominee who would be slagged for getting her period by the ever-classy G. Gordon Liddy. Sotomayor's sex and ethnicity couldn't help but play a role in her media treatment, and it wasn't always pretty. Ginsburg continues: "One is that she's a woman, another is that she made the remark about Latina women. And I thought it was ridiculous for them to make a big deal out of that."

As Sotomayor's confirmation hearing begins today, Women's Media Center offers a compilation video that looks at some of those low points up to this point, from good ol' Rush Limbaugh calling her a "racist" to that horrible editorial cartoon in The Oklahoman that strung her up like a pinata. Let's hope we see less of this kind of nonsense in the days to come. Fingers crossed. Breath held.


By Sarah Hepola

Sarah Hepola is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, "Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget."

MORE FROM Sarah Hepola


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