When candidate Mitt Romney exhibited his barely covert sexist and condescending statements to his opponent for Governor, Ms. Shannon O’Brien, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of MA, I was offended. When candidate Mitt Romney disrespected the Moderator and the President of the United States in the first debate of the current race for POTUS, I felt a touch of bile re-stimulated from the past beginning to advance upon my already no so favorable perception of the GOP candidate.
For the youngsters in the crowd, here is a link and an excerpt of Mitt Romney’s remarks”
The final week of the Romney-O’Brien race was consumed partly with a debate over whether Romney had taken a sexist tack in a televised debate with O’Brien, the state treasurer with a reputation as a smart and tough political insider, when he described her criticisms of him as “unbecoming.” O’Brien and her supporters decried that as code language intended to undercut a strong woman. In one exchange in the debate, over O’Brien’s citation of Romney’s endorsement from a pro-life group in 1994, Romney said, “Your effort to continue to try and create fear and deception here is unbecoming.” And deflecting her attack regarding Medicare fraud at a company whose board he served on, Romney said, “You know, the level of misrepresentation is just not becoming, Shannon. That’s just wrong.”
Can you imagine what this guy actually thinks if this is the crap that comes out of his mouth?
Mitt Romney’s words and body language speaking: “You know, the level of misrepresentation is just not becoming (fill in the blanks)………”Jim (Lehrer)”…..”You the black guy in the White House”….”You the lazy ass 47% of takers”……
Now, that’s just wrong.
I usually hear the term in the context of military or police, both still very male institutions.
there it’s “conduct unbecoming an officer.” The phrase rests on a basic belief that members of the military or police should be held to a higher standard. Their conduct is “unbecoming” when they’ve failed to adhere to that standard. In this context there is a subtle suggestion that women also should be held to a higher standard. It is inappropriate for them to engage in aggressive rhetorical attack, no matter how true.
Think of the impact of the word upon the listener. Someone hears him say her behavior is “unbecoming” and there’s an instantaneous analysis: “Hmmm, is it appropriate for her to be engaging in this conduct? Romney’s suggesting it’s not.” For those who have (even an unconscious) gender bias in these matters, it’s not much of a leap to conclude she’s behaving inappropriately. Failing to meet a standard she is required to meet because of who she is. The same people might reach a different conclusion if he used the line against a white male.
The expression draws out latent gender bias. It’s a more subtle and artful form of Akin’s comment that Claire McCaskill’s calling him out was not “ladylike.”