“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough penned a Wednesday op-ed after coming under fire for suggesting Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton smile after her clean sweep in Tuesday’s primaries.
“It seems that my brief tweet succinctly summed up 10,000 years of sexism in 30 symbols because I dared to suggest that a political candidate act joyful while delivering a celebratory speech to the American people,” Scarborough wrote in the Washington Post column.
He also summed up the fallout over the tweet as “The horror!”
Smile. You just had a big night. #PrimaryDay
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 16, 2016
For a presidential candidate, “pasting a smile on your face while giving a victory speech is probably the safest political play,” he said.
But Scarborough made clear he wasn’t writing a mea culpa about the gendered critique and explained that it’s actually very non-sexist to comment on a woman’s appearance.
“To those suggesting that critiquing a woman in the same way that one would critique a man is unfair, I can only say that there are no microaggressions when you are running for the highest office in the land,” the former Florida congressman wrote.
Clinton definitively won four primaries and managed to eke out a win Missouri on Tuesday.
His tweet was a distraction from the fact that Clinton was bashing the hell out of his buddy Trump in her speech.
The problem, JoeScar, is that you don’t criticize men’s appearance in the same way, and specifically, don’t seem to find it necessary to tell men to smile when they’re not doing so on their own.
I personally think JoeScar needs a blepharoplasty. His squinty eyes are distracting. A little chin tuck wouldn’t hurt. Maybe some Just for Men on the sideburns.
If you are a woman you rarely get through life without some random guy, usually in a moment when you are busy, intently contemplating something, thinking through a problem, tending to work that matters to you, suddenly interrupting you by demanding that you “Smile!”
What it means is “Pay attention to me.” “Fawningly acknowledge my wonderful existence.” Or, as in JoeScar’s case; “behave like I think all women should.”
It’s irritating. And it makes the random guy look like an idiot.
Eke out a win.
Save eek for sentences such as “EEEEK, my spelling is atrocious!”