Size Matters

A lot has been made of the U.S. Republican party’s primary campaign’s descent into a figurative “dick- measuring contest” during candidate events, interviews and even debates. While many have criticized such exchanges, pointing to them as symbolic of a larger problem, a part of the GOP’s identity crisis or the further erosion of civility in politics, it remains to be asked, how do dick jokes figure into ideas of what it means to be president? Why does it matter? This continued use of gendered language by Republican candidates to deride and reduce opponents’ ability to lead vis-à-vis their masculinity only underscores embedded perceptions of politics as a man’s game in which women don’t play. For women, it makes winning political campaigns that much harder.