Brett Kavanaugh Is Nice. That Doesn’t Mean He’s Not Sexist.
We’ve confused “sexism” with meanness — and sexists routinely benefit from our confusion
Brett Kavanaugh is probably a sweet guy. That’s what I’ve picked up from the various op-eds about his “character,” several of them written by female acquaintances. In the Washington Post, Julie O’Brien praises Kavanaugh’s “personal kindness” as a “carpool dad,” noting that “he coaches not one but two girls’ basketball teams. His positive attitude and calm demeanor make the game fun and allow each player to shine.” In the Wall Street Journal, Amy Chua praises his “decency” toward women, collecting a fistful of testimonies from the (female) clerks she’s referred to his office: “I’ve never seen him be rude to anyone in the building,” one says.
It’s good to hear that Kavanaugh hasn’t cussed out any janitors lately. But there is something disingenuous here. When it comes to judging Kavanaugh’s qualifications for the Supreme Court, the writers demur. Yet we’re clearly supposed to conclude something about his jurisprudence from these testimonies, or there would be no reason to publish them. Most likely, we’re supposed to look at these stories (note the female bylines) and conclude that Kavanaugh — who will almost certainly cast the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade — is too…
