Is Obama Sexist?

“She is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough … She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country.”

With this sentence, spoken in Atherton in southern California at the end of a Democratic fundraising convention, Barack Obama is at the center of a harsh polemic, which in the course of a few hours burned up on social networks. The compliment — or the inappropriate quip for some — was directed at Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general (a post equivalent to our minister of justice). It seems that Obama persisted through this utterance, adding, “It’s true, come on!” He also said, at least twice, that Kamala is “beautiful to look at.”* The potential accusation of sexism, at that point, came served on a silver platter.

Political journalist McKay Coppins wrote on Twitter, “Are we sure we didn’t elect Mitt Romney?” The reference is to a gaffe the Republican candidate made during the last presidential election, when during one of the debates on live TV with Obama, he let slip that he had “whole binders full of women” for the future administration. He intended to say we will employ many capable women to cover the top jobs, but he was massacred for that poorly thought out sentence. The question is obligatory: Can the U.S. president not tell a woman she is beautiful? And even emphasize it several times? The response is predictable: Obviously yes, but it depends on the circumstances. And Obama’s choice was probably not the right one.

Jamelle Bouie of the Washington Post raised the feminist sword, calling for “radical change,” for a world where “women can simply exist without comments about their appearance.” Meanwhile accusations crop up, more or less veiled, of excessive male chauvinism in the White House. Since his first term, Obama has been accused of having created a staff dominated by men, many of them old friends. Some women who work for him have complained in private (but voices in Washington travel fast) about the “macho” culture around the Oval Office. Revealing this atmosphere, the Washington Post reported a statement by former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn who said, “[The White House] would be in court for a hostile workplace because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.” A harsh sentence. Who knows what might be true. And who knows what Michelle Obama thinks of it. To try to salvage the situation, Angela Rye, former executive director and general counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus, recounts that Harris and Obama “are good friends.” The president is excused in the meantime …

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, this quote could not be verified.