“What Struck You…” – Interview with Female Senatorial Aspirant

 

This supposed “flop” was recorded by a guy with his phone while watching this interview on his Tv, and in the background, he was laughing about it in a way that depicts the lady’s lack of intelligence. 

I’ve seen many people posting and calling this lady “dumb” and unfit for the position she is aspiring for. And I can’t help to think that these people seem quite ignorant of the lady’s humor. 

It is very easy for people to call out her gormlessness, without even critically looking at her response. For me, I think her response was quite jocular, you can see she even laughed at her own joke, but as it seem, the interviewer didn’t quite catch her joke, same with the guy recording the clip. 

I do think that her reply was an “in-the-moment cruise” and perhaps, it is something that can be easily overlooked. And Instead of the bantering, her ability to aspire for such a position—given our highly patriarchal society—should be applauded! She’s queen! 

Before you even criticize her ignorantly, I think it is worth having a look at her profile and background , even a Primary school kid will understand that question. From what it seems, she was fully aware of her joke (obviously, there’s no relationship between “thunder” and “campaign”), and she doesn’t look that dumb to not understand the question she was asked. (Correct me with better arguments if you think I’m wrong tho).

I believe in giving people a benefit of the doubt especially when we aren’t familiar with this person enough to tell how much of a “sense of humor” she has. So instead of making a “humorous smh” big deal out of her response, I’ll rather focus on more important things that she said. 

P.S: A joke is only fully a joke when it is received by the other party as a joke. If someone makes a joke and nobody gets it or laughs about it, then it becomes a “bad joke”, which I think was the case here.

The media, and peoples reaction to things can be quite misleading most times, you know. Have you tried watching the full interview she had?

Her response in the end was quite articulate and eloquent, and she sounded really smart too. Stop trying to downplay all of that wit to focus on something very frivolous, please! I bet the person behind the camera recording her “supposed flop” can probably not even make a straight sentence, when in the same position.

More so, part of me feels like so much is expected of her because she’s a woman. And this is why her arguable “flaws” are being underlined. There’ve been many incompetent male politicians and even aspirants whose flaws have been overlooked. I won’t mention names, but for sure, I remember the Presidential debate in 2015, where both aspirants were missing in action, but he still managed to become President, regardless. But if na woman, they will say she’s not “sound”. 

These implicit biases is what I’m trying to call out!

Linkedin Facebook Instagram