Género nas eleições norte-americanas

O assunto é controverso. Já se falou dele aqui (ver notas sob a etiqueta género). Está, ou não, a questão do género a influenciar as eleições para a escolha do candidato democrata? Tenho aqui três artigos: uma coluna no Comment is free (Guardian) de uma empenhada apoiante de Hillary Clinton; uma opinião no Washington Post de uma mordaz não-apoiante de Hillary Clinton e um artigo do The Boston Globe que questiona o fundamento científico da força relativa dos preconceitos contra as mulheres e os negros. Todos concordam que existe um problema. O artigo mais interessante é último mas não podem deixar de ler o primeiro, pela indignação (correcta) que carreia. Excertos:

Comment is free: Goodbye to all that #2: A posição de Robin Morgan tem de ser lida na totalidade. Tive dificuldade em escolher um excerto que exemplificasse a sua opinião.

Ruth Marcus-The Force of Gender-washingtonpost.com "The image of charismatic leadership at the top has been and continues to be a man," said Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. "Barack Obama's appeal and charisma is uniquely his own, but it also fits with an age-old history of men who electrify followers. . . . We don't have an image, we don't have a historical memory of a woman who has achieved that feat. That may not be coming anytime soon. Gender isn't the most restricting force in American life. It remains a force to be reckoned with."

Black man vs. white woman - The Boston Globe: "But turn away from the campaign trail, and toward the laboratories where psychologists work, and a fascinating ortrait of the primaries emerges. For decades, researchers have been probing bias - how it arises, how it changes, how it fades away. Their work suggests that bias lays a more powerful role in shaping opinions than most people are aware of. And hey suggest that the American mind treats race and gender quite differently. Race an evoke more visceral, negative associations, the studies show, but attitudes oward women are more inflexible and -- to judge by the current dynamics of the residential race -- ultimately more limiting."