Thread by @VABVOX

THREAD 📌
So Wednesday morning I complained about mansplaining and this guy targeted me for harassment. First he said I couldn't be an expert because I am a journalist and they aren't experts at anything, according to him. Then he demanded to know what I was an expert in.
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I got creeped out by his repeated tweets in which he engaged some other women followers of mine who had come to my defense. (TYVM 👏😘) When I went to block and report him, I discovered he had tweeted me 27 times in a couple hours. 27. Before 7am. Stalkery af. And entitled.

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But I have been thinking about his demands ever since and how women are expected to prove who they are and why they deserve to be listened to. Not just me, of course. This guy had fixated on the fact that I did not have a PhD, so how could I possibly be an expert on anything?
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I have 30+yrs experience in my field. I have areas of expertise--issues I have written about over years about which I am, in fact, like many journalists, an expert. But this is a classic misogynist ploy: challenge a woman and claim she is a fraud and knows nothing.

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In 2016 we saw it happen to Hillary Clinton. Folks claimed she had no accomplishments. Bernie even called her unqualified to be president. In 2020 we saw it applied to the women senators running for president. And we saw it applied to the women who were contending to be VP.
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Stacey Abrams got the worst of it, with Tammy Duckworth a close second. But all the women got horriibly misogynist attacks, all of which called their credentials into question.
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The misogynoir against Kamala Harris will rev up this week, now she is official. The right has already gone full birther, prompting her to state her hospital of birth in her DNC speech. The faux left has created a different bad narrative about her and her role as prosecutor.
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Hillary Clinton was accused of sleeping her way to the presidential race. Kamala Harris has gotten similar accusations. This is part of the demeaning of women's accomplishments--she must have had a man help her. But both women worked their way to their roles, despite misogyny.
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Wednesday night's DNC focused on women--it was our night. Yet Hillary Clinton was shunted out of prime time and her role deeply diminished--despite her historic role. It was painful to witness her relegated to cheerleader instead of the elder stateswoman she is.
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Women are still suspect in the political arena. In 2016 there was Bernie merch that had Hillary at the stake with the caption "feel the Bern." There were T-shirts that read "Trump that b*tch" and another with the C word. Amazon just removed merch that reads "Joe & the Ho."
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The the new merch was taken off market is a good sign--that didn't happen 4yrs ago. But the same issues remain: Kamala is "too ambitious." It is exhausting.
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In her speech, Kamala said "There is no vaccine for racism, we have to do the work." I would add there is no vaccine for misogyny, either. We have to do the work. We can start by not challenging women on their resumes. AOC isn't a bartender and Kamala isn't a cop. It's time.
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And cue attacks on Elizabeth Warren: the work she's been doing with Biden for a few months is "self-aggrandizing" while putting BLM on the shelf behind her (she also spoke about BLM)was cheesy or virtue signalling or invent a narrative. There are only wrong answers for women.
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