Has Reeves hit a new low- saying it's misogyny?

[Christmaspuddingsss]

I couldn't believe I was reading this today.

She accuses her critics of being against her budget plans because she is a woman. (But ignores the number of U turns she's done because of the criticism from back benchers)

Using the 'misogyny' card is really desperate IMO.

Of course there's a lot of misogyny involved. Compare the way the media describes her (and Angela Rayner) with how they write about previous incompetent politicians. There's also fair criticism that isn't misogynistic, but there's a level of casual prejudice that is incredibly retro.

Yes, definitely, supercharged by the media, what woman would go into politics now!

There's definitely misogyny at play, and a lot of it on here, from women, which is shameful.

How many male chancellors have been described in a similar way to 'Rachel from accounts'. Or in the case of 'Angela from Housing', delving into her background in a critical manner rather than celebrating her being appointed as deputy PM?

It’s not misogyny for her terrible policies and performance to be criticised and it helps no woman for her to pull that card. We need to see her do better. Crying in Parliament didn’t help either.

There is absolutely no doubt the media and society is hugely misogynistic especially to politicians.

The media is also extremely biased towards the right in the UK. The things they let the Tories off with is unbelievable.

That said it doesnt mean she is handling the budget well.

Legitimate criticism of the budget is obviously not misogyny. And Reeves has undoubtedly made mistakes/ done things which warrant valid criticism.

But you've also been living under a rock if you haven't noticed the actual misogyny directed towards Reeves. It is not a "card", it is real.

She absolutely has been treated more badly because of her sex though. Rachel From Accounts is pure misogyny.

Also the budget hasn’t been released yet so can everyone just wait until it’s out and then kick off about the shitshow of the economy that we can firmly the blame for with the Tories.

I cannot feel any sympathy whatsoever for anyone who has knowingly signed up to play a leading role in something as fundamentally deceitful and undemocratic as the Starmer Project.

Anyone who feels sympathy should, I suggest, read ‘The Fraud’ by Paul Holden, dissecting the sustained lies & illegality that put Starmer and his coterie, including Reeves, in power.

Calling her Rachel from Accounts is highly misogynistic

I think its both. People are legitimately criticising the way the budget is being done.

But wrapping their criticism in misogyny.

I agree with @APatternGrammar

By all means judge her results against your values. Cast your vote accordingly.

But the misogyny started the instant she moved into Downing Street, if not before. ‘Rachel from Accounts’ got a lot of traction on this very forum, which one would have hoped valued the dignity of even women one disagreed with. Her minor political slip ups were blown out of proportion.

Do the posters so rabid towards this Labour team simply have a nonpartisan wish to highlight political incompetence? Not judging by their tolerance of worse from the previous government. That adorable scamp Boris took 4 days off at the height of the Covid crisis. His government’s lack of clear thinking has now been shown to have caused an avoidable excess of 23,000 deaths.

Well she’s probably right tbf

Definitely misogyny. It was the same when Theresa May was PM. In any patriarchal society, women in general are scrutinised more for their looks, weight, dress sense etc. Know your place, ladies. Politics is no different.

All of that said, as others have said above, she’s making a total cats ass out of this budget and that is worth the criticism. Not the fact that she’s female.

Of course it’s misogynist. You can disagree hugely with her policies but also acknowledge that she is the target of misogynists.

Remember the mini-budget of 2022? 3 years on, we still talk about that and the disaster it was. At the time there was a female PM and a male Chancellor. Who do we/the media blame? The PM.

Now fast forward to current day where the government has made a complete mess of their PR with u-turn after u-turn and some very odd and unpopular economic decisions. We have a male PM and a female Chancellor. Who do we blame? The Chancellor.

Do you see a pattern...?

It’s 100% alive and kicking in politics but I don’t think any criticism of this budget is down to that. Most chancellors face it, Osborne’s in particular was completely torn apart.

The fact they put the feelers out first for increased income tax, realised everyone would hate them so backtracked was farcical.

The Rachel from Accounts thing is because she lied on her CV. Then she plagiarised her book. Lied about her chess successes. Stupid, pointless lies to paint a picture of someone she no doubt wishes she was but isn’t. Not because she’s a woman but because she’s incompetent.

She made a massive deal about being the first female chancellor when her success in getting the job should have spoken for itself. We’ve had 3 female prime ministers for gods sake.

As a woman I’m offended by her calling misogyny when it turned out she’s terrible at her job.

I think she's deranged.

There probably is some misogyny, but there is definitely valid criticism.

I was excited to have a female chancellor (I’ve always quite liked the idea that I’d be the first female chancellor, despite having made no effort for a career in politics, it’s just my dream job). I’m just so disappointed it was her and this is what she’s done with the role.

Exactly.

You can call her incompetent, unpopular, say she isntnup the the job, whatever, but Rachel From Accounts is misogynistic and it's being used to talk down to her.

The problem is that people either really don't see the misogyny OR they think its OK because its suits their purpose to mock her. Neither of which are good looks.

Why not just criticise her objectively and without being sexist?

Tbf, the one good thing about people using that term is that it's a walking red flag for who has internalised misogyny.

Both Reeves and Starmer are accountable. Him even more so.

@NebulousWhistler makes a great point about Theresa May, also. A (female) senior Civil Servant I know who is personally quite left in her politics thinks TM was a victim of misogyny.

I am not a natural Tory but I think she was, so far, the best PM since I have moved to the UK. Boris decided to go for her jugular and the party backed him.

I think you have to be being deliberately obtuse to pretend that criticism faced by female politicians is not couched in misogyny.

That is not the same as saying “the budget is great. She’s amazing! Anyone who says otherwise is a massive sexist!”

I think that, given the budget and the general misogyny, now was maybe not the best time for Reeves to make this point, because it gives people who want to wilfully misunderstand an opportunity to say “oh so I’m just sexist if I don’t like the budget then! Stop playing the misogyny card!”

It’s absolutely misogyny. And while I cannot prove that with any statistical data, as a lifelong Labour supporter, I must ascribe some sort of accusatory pejorative towards those who criticise people on my side, in the hopes that it distracts from any failings that they might have. Not that I believe she has any failings whatsoever, she’s doing an awesome job undoing all the machinations from those evil Tories!

It’s a shame really that she is not a person of colour, as a racism accusation can be so much more powerful.

The one and done slate clean after the last budget will get backlash. It should be at Starmer too.