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May vs Leadsom: so much sexism

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Conservative Party, leader, May, Leadsom, sexist drivel, press, media sexism‘Deeply offensive – and very depressing’.

It may be 2016, but the British media still can’t seem to handle the fact that the next Prime Minister is going to be a woman.

WVoN decided to pick out a selection of just some of the sexist remarks that were made about Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May while the media and party members were trying to get people thinking in an informed and thoughtful way about a Conservative leadership contest.

Sorry, ‘should have been’.

The BBC: “May and Leadsom may both be women, but they have quite different views“;

Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, and supporter of Andrea Leadsom: “Having balls in a man’s world…these are things you could attribute to Mrs T [Margaret Thatcher] that our girl’s [Andrea Leadsom] got this time”;

The Daily Mail: “Has Theresa boobed again? May turns up to Number 10 in unfortunately patterned ‘cleavage’ dress”;

Ken Clarke, Conservative MP for Rushcliffe: “Theresa May is a bloody difficult woman”;

The i Paper: “Britain’s next PM will be a woman”;

Allison Pearson, Telegraph columnist and Leadsom supporter: “Time that a mother took charge”;

The Daily Star: “HERE COME THE GIRLS – Next PM WILL be a woman”;

Male MP: “It’s time for Mummy!”;

The Daily Mail: “WHO’LL BE THE NEW MAGGIE?”;

Cabinet Minister: Leadsom has to “prove she can take the heat or get back to the kitchen”.

I suppose in some ways we shouldn’t be – and aren’t – particularly surprised at the sexism that has accompanied Leadsom and May’s bids for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

But some of the comments that have been made are truly astonishing, particularly in this day and age.

Deplorable, really.

For a longstanding and respected broadcaster like the BBC to say, on air, that despite the fact that Leadsom and May are of the same gender, they ACTUALLY have different opinions is deeply offensive – and very depressing.

As is the idea that because they’re both female Conservatives, they will obviously be Margaret Thatcher II rather than any kind of Prime Minister in their own right, with their own identity and policies.

You can be sure that if the final two in the contest had been male MPs, we would not have had headlines exclaiming “Next PM will be a man” – i.e. stating the bloody obvious.

Yes, we’ve only had a female Prime Minister once before, but it would be far more constructive, and with the times, to focus on the candidates’ profiles rather than the fact that, shock horror, they are both women.

And now May has triumphed, we can, sadly, be sure that this is only the beginning.

Brace yourselves for three and a half years of the same sexist drivel.

I can just see it now… “May woos MEPs in Brussels with figure-hugging skirt”.

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