The issue with Elizabeth Warren isn’t likability. It’s sexism | Moira Donegan
The claim that a woman candidate is not ‘likable’ is code for saying she defies our shared cultural understanding that power and authority are implicitly male
Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and longtime consumer protection advocate, became the first Democratic candidate to formally enter the 2020 presidential race on Monday, with a New Years Eve announcement that seemed timed to pre-empt the slew of candidacies from her fellow Democrats that are expected in the coming months. In a five-minute video, she stands in her kitchen and emphasizes the injustice of rising economic inequality, an issue she has focused her career on with an almost religious devotion. The Hillary Clinton comparisons followed immediately, with Politico asking just hours later: “How does Elizabeth Warren avoid a Clinton redux – written off as too unlikeable before her campaign gets off the ground?”
Related: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘likability’? The US media has learned nothing from 2016 | Arwa Mahdawi