“If...” A Dog Whistle Only Women Can Hear
The “binders full of women” meme took over the national discourse to the point that it was referred to as “Binder-gate” by Joe Scarborough. One pundit pointed out that he didn't notice the odd phrasing, but his wife did.
And if you go back and watch that portion of the debate, you will hear the real reason why this phrase—which was just really the slip of the tongue—resonated like a high-pitched bell with women.
When asked about equal pay for equal work, instead of answering the question directly Mitt Romney sidetracked the question entirely, and said "If you’re going to have women in the workforce…”
Contrast this statement with the way Mitt talks about his run for the presidency. He almost always uses the word “when” like it's a foregone conclusion that he will win--votes be damned. He acts like this election is a hostile takeover, and he is speaking to a boardroom of people who used to be in power but are now cowering under his gaze just hoping that they can keep their jobs and that he won't declare war against their competitors.
But when referring to working women, he used the non-declarative phrasing “If...” Mitt Romney lives in a world where women don't have to work. They choose to work. Most women live in the world where they have to work to make ends meet. I know exactly one stay-at-home mom, and she works freelance while homeschooling her children.
Mitt lives in a world where you can be the CEO of a company for twenty years and still not know one woman qualified to fill a cabinet position. I can name at least ten women who hold such qualifications and that's in my family alone. Don't get me started on the talented and intelligent women who are my friends and co-workers.
He then goes on to say that he’s going to create so many jobs that employers are going to be anxious to hire women. But hiring women is the foregone conclusion. Who wouldn't want the same productivity at three-quarters of the cost? It’s a free-market dream. But it’s a financial nightmare for women.
So in the light of these statements and the ever revealing truth that the scenario he put forth was a fictional account of the events that he concocted to fit his narrative, it's easy to see that the “binders full of women” comment was a crystallization of the ridiculousness of a man who is unwilling to support equal pay for women.
So this is what we heard. This is why it resonates. “If…” is the dog whistle only women could hear.
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Whoever wrote this is definitely a writer.
Kudos BeliQueen!
I did not catch that part about 'if'. I have guy ears. Thank you for a great clarification!
Nor does he CARE, for that matter. 
And, I agree that it belongs as an editorial for a newspaper. 
Notice I mentioned someone just like you in the post?
That's news to me. I heard the "if" and responded with a "you fucking moron!"
(Checking crotch.) Nope. Still a guy. 
Thanks for hearing the it!
...and realized that the "if women are going to be in the workplace" phrase didn't stand out to me at all. Wow 
Excellent piece.
Last edited Fri Oct 19, 2012, 11:45 PM - Edit history (1)
comes to mind or better yet, "catalogs". It is insulting to me as a woman that (1) he didn't know about or how to recruit women to his administration as if it were a completely foreign concept (I suppose he was surrounded by 99% men) or that his supposedly women oriented wife didn't suggest it (2) the women candidates where brought to HIM by women's groups. He didn't seek them out. 
And "if" implies that although I think women shouldn't be in the workplace, "if" they insist....
Love this post. Thank you for expressing my feelings so well.
and dissecting of said analysis.
Well done!
I will sit and listen respectfully to so many people whose views are different than mine and hope for common ground and diplomacy, but when someone is SO greedy, SO disrespectful of hardworking people, SO dishonest from sun up til sun down..... all I want is duct tape to shut their stinking pie hole, a copy of the transcript and someone like you to pin point WHERE in the pounds of crap that spewed out of his mouth are the bits and pieces that betray his slanted world view.
So I appreciate the complete and intelligent analysis you have done. I'd like to make a copy of it and show it to a co-worker of mine. He's a guy and he correctly gets that Mitt is a fool, but he doesn't understand HOW offensive what Mitt said was or fully why and we're at work so I can't go really deeply into it.
My co-worker made the mistake of teasing me... with the idea that because I know he is against Mitt, against discrimination of all kinds that I'd think he was only being funny. He sent me an instant message, "Oh settle down, or I'll have to put you in a binder." 
I got very mad, 
but I really like the guy and just wanted to disabuse him of the notion that it is ok to talk to me like that.
I said something to the effect that he was welcome to try but that better men than him have found themselves missing important parts of themselves trying to put me in my place. I'm a computer support tech, so I've had to be tough at times to establish that odd type of respect one gets being a woman in what lots of people think is more of a man's job.
He said, "OK Miz Bobbit" and I said, "Not like that ewwwww" and he came back with "Nobody puts Baby in a binder" which I also found offensive. I said, "No one puts ME anywhere I don't want to be." 
We mostly laughed it off. I was disappointed that he didn't get it, but haven't given up on him really understanding it if I could get OUT of the place of being offended and find the words to explain it.
But then again, I was raised by my grandmother and single mom, in a house of only sisters.
He's famous, by now, for blurting. So somewhere in the past decade we should have video or audio somewhere of his expressing sympathy or support or understanding of this concept - equal pay for equal work. A simple "yes." That he hems and haws and then deflects. "What about equal pay for equal work?" "Oh, look over here! I collected BINDERS full of women!" Didn't even answer the question.
Besides that, he's a BUSINESSMAN. That's the filter through which he sees everything. How a BUSINESSMAN would see things. Uppity, annoying women having the nerve to demand something. They think "they're ENTITLED..." as he told that quiet room of elites and high-rolelr donors, who all see the world the way he does. Of course they all feel that way. These demands are very low, if not non-existent on their priority list, because any accommodations like that cut into their profits. Typical of business and the corporate world - they only do something decent for these farther down the food chain when they HAVE TO. Or when they're forced to - usually by an equally large and powerful rival entity: the federal government. They don't automatically do the correct or ethical or moral thing because such things usually cost more money.
And a douchebag like him CERTAINLY doesn't want to have to waste any of his precious time considering equal pay issues WHEN HE'S MADE HIS MONEY CHISELING WORKERS, AND OUTSOURCING THEIR JOBS TO CHINESE WORKERS WHO GET MAYBE A DOLLAR A DAY. He doesn't want to bother with you, you demanding American women. What's wrong with you that you can't get a husband like him - so you can sit on your ass all day and go play horsey and chair PTA meetings and get your hair done and your mani-pedi and go to lunch with the other girls. Why are you complaining? It's your fault you aren't living like we do!
That's his attitude. No wonder he likes those Chinese women working for $1.00 per day. That beats the hell out of having to cut into his profit margin because he has to pay decent wages to those annoying, demanding American women - who think they're ENTITLED.
I find him utterly repulsive. 
When I heard Mittwit say that I did a double-take. IF?!
IF?! Where has he been the past 30 years? With stagnant wages for men, the middle class only continued to exist at all because women were in the workforce supplementing family income. With outsourcing, families were only able to hang on by their fingernails as long as they did because mom was already in the workforce. As things got even worse, the middle class began to disappear, with both mom and dad working for less and less money.
IF?! Women's work is a necessity, not a luxury, for the vast majority of Americans who live outside the Country Club 1950s bubble of privilege.
And he and his ilk think that half the country just wants a handout... 
