Representation

If yesterday’s blog post proved anything whatsoever, it would be that Dave Yungmann has plenty of women friends who are willing to give him testimonials. That’s great. It’s good to have friends, and it looks like he has some of the best.

Things that these testimonials focus on:

Dave Yungmann is a great guy. I don’t dispute that. My blog post wasn’t about that at all.

Dave Yungmann did a lot during the BOE campaign that you don’t know about. I don’t dispute that either.

That’s just how people write campaign literature. It’s no big deal.
Hmm.

He would never erase women. He’s not like that.
Well...

Here’s the deal. As a writer, albeit an amateur, I naturally focus on how people use words. So my blog post was an analysis of how Mr. Yungmann was telling his story to the public. In a political campaign, once you put stuff out there, the public will read it and give feedback. That’s how it works.   And there’s nothing innately unfair about commentary on political campaign posts. You are responsible for how you tell your story.

It says something about who you are.

While Mr. Yungmann might not be the sort to take credit for other people’s work and erase women from the narrative—and I hear the folks who are telling me this—his campaign material clearly did just that. I don’t care what political party he is, I would have called out anyone for that. Particularly since the topic, changes in the school system, was one I had quite a bit of knowledge of.

I see examples almost every day where women are excluded, erased, talked over, and diminished when it comes to community and political discourse. Not only does this do a great disservice to women, it is also a loss to our culture as a whole. We all lose when representation and leadership do not reflect the fact that it takes both women and men to make good decisions in a culture that has, no surprise, both women and men. It’s really that simple.

Every time we allow someone to shape the narrative in a way that excludes or downplays the contribution of women we endorse the underlying misconception that men’s work is somehow innately more valuable. I just can’t give that a pass.

I want to thank everyone who took the time yesterday to chime in on this topic. Thanks for all of your thoughtful responses.