Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and live with that decision.” For years, women have struggled to obtain an equal and positive role in society. Women like Rosie the Riveter and Rosa Parks helped change how society views women. And I am thankful that those women were brave enough to fight for their causes.
However, some women today seem to take gratefulness a little too far. An agitated reader of The Post wrote a letter to the editor regarding the “BedPost: Sexy nominees make vote tough” article. A writer asking women to consider the sex appeal of Obama and Romney irked Kellie Rizer, who wrote the letter. I understand why Rizer was upset — it is offensive to assume that women might vote for the president based on appearance. While I agree that I would have considered the issues of Obamacare or Romney’s five-point plan instead of wondering which candidate looks better shirtless, I do not find it in the least bit offensive or sexist that Stephanie Doan chose to express her sexual thoughts regarding the election.
In fact, as an educated and politically informed young woman myself, I was more offended by Rizer’s letter. For being an avid reader of The Post, Rizer forgot what BedPost columnist Stephanie Doan usually writes about. Doan made it clear that her article was “a message from your local sex columnist urging you to vote.” Hopefully today’s women don’t rely on a university sex columnist’s opinion to help them make a political decision.
Thinking about sex appeal is natural. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of which candidate is more attractive. But I’d also be lying if I said I voted for Obama because I thought he was sexier. Instead, I voted for him because I agreed with his plan for the nation. I did not vote for him because a writer, like Stephanie Doan, made me feel as though that’s the only reason I should vote for a candidate — because he’s sexy. I did my election homework. I watched the debates and attended speeches.
Sex appeal is everywhere in today’s society. Just because a writer, who happens to be a woman, wants to vote for her president based on her opinion of who has the cuter butt does not mean that all women vote with that thought in mind. Speaking as a woman, and as an ethnic minority at that, I did not hear a sexist tone in Doan’s article.
As Ghandi said, “be the change you wish to see in the world.” If you don’t like how women are portrayed, write an article covering the dozens of “Women for Obama” or “Women for Romney” groups across the nation doing work to spread the word about their causes and get out the vote.
Sandhya Warrier is a junior studying pre-physical therapy psychology at Ohio University.
