By Sharanya Gopinathan
What do you think of when you hear the words Vladimir Putin? I think of that hilarious uber-macho picture of him riding a horse that’s been Photoshopped into every conceivable situation known to man. I also wonder why I can’t remember anyone but him ever being the President of Russia.
It isn’t just his public image that exudes machismo though: he’s made a whole bunch of sexist remarks in the past, like when, on the topic of Hillary Clinton, he said that it’s “better not to argue with women”, compared her to Hitler, said she wasn’t graceful in her statements, and implied both that she was weak, and that “weakness may not be the worst quality for a woman”. Gosh, he sounds so delightful.
Anyway, maybe because it’s been a while since he’s said something sexist in the media, yesterday, in an interview with director Oliver Stone, he decided to provide a new gem: that he doesn’t have “bad days”, because he’s not a woman. The full remarks read, “I am not a woman, so I don’t have bad days. I am not trying to insult anyone. That’s just the nature of things. There are certain natural cycles.” Meaning women are emotional, hysterical and have mood swings according to when their period is due. Yawn.
Well, I guess he’s having a bad day today, because he’s making global headlines and setting social media on fire for being a giant sexist ass. Of course, it’s so boring and annoying that a current world leader still subscribes to an ancient, outdated stereotype like this one, but then again, our own political leaders make farcical statements like this on the daily, despite so many facts that tell you pretty much the opposite, as this Twitter user points out:
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https://twitter.com/sharrell86/status/872240278819807232
Meanwhile, here’s a video from earlier this week where Putin jokes that Megyn Kelly has a closer relationship to him than former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn does to him, and that she would be jailed by the standards used to investigate Michael Flynn, whose connection to Russia in the context of Donald Trump’s election is currently being investigated.
https://twitter.com/joshdcaplan/status/872577698304020480