It is common knowledge that politics is a breeding ground for misogyny. The numerous problems and challenges women in politics face are jarringly different than our male counterparts; emancipation almost foreign and the idea of ‘social-inclusion and gender equality’ aren’t exactly top priorities in our society.

Male-dominated institutions have projected patriarchy and reinforced male chauvinism for decades and as a result, reinforcement of the notion that women are inferior in every aspect presents a wide variety of challenges for women to pursue our rights.

The patriarchal atmosphere that surrounds our society is one that is shrouded in insecurity and misplaced male bravado, thus, when Gerakan’s legal and human rights bureau chief Baljit Singh proposed the idea to ‘field young, sexy multicultural women’ to ensure victory for the party, such chauvinistic remarks proves just how retrogressive the ruling elite really are.

Interestingly enough, after receiving tremendous flak from members of public, civil society and politicians - Baljit has since declared that his remark was taken out of context - the usual uninspiring verbal escape route that is favoured by those who refuse to apologise.

After suffering major electoral losses, one would think that Gerakan would drop their arrogance and attempt to understand how present-day society functions. Women all across the divide have talents and the intellectual capacity that can help boost our nation’s economy but due to various present social constraints and prejudices, we still find ourselves getting into petty arguments and question just how significant women’s roles are within a society.

Unfortunately, Baljit’s proposal does very little to ascertain confidence amongst Malaysian voters and hammers the final nail into the coffin of political irrelevance, hence, by doing so, such remarks further alienate Malaysian women voters and for the most part, any sound-minded Malaysian.

Patriarchy is dangerous as such beliefs undermine the ability of women - deducing that a woman’s role in politics is merely superficial and at best, provides tokenism at its lowest form; with the sole purpose to lull unassuming voters to cast their votes for a party that has lost the plot a long time ago.

But Gerakan is not alone, equally sinking in the quicksand of gender bias stereotyping are individuals and organisations who share the same distorted views pertaining gender roles. To them, women are often portrayed as weak, incapable of making smart decisions, incompetent and inferior. They subscribe to the idea that women are not born leaders and assume that our roles are best kept confined within the kitchen.

In the broadest sense, sexism is not just about genders prejudices but also the unabashed display of power to discriminate against someone based on gender. The media has the power to determine the type of images we ought to see and what we should not.

Lack of diversity in media

Of course, in an ideal world, women of any size, ethnicity and shape should be given proper representation in popular media. Unfortunately, reality provides something rather bleak - the lack of diversity in media gives a lot of leeway to certain individuals to express their gender bigoted opinions to members of the public which makes us feel anything but warm and fuzzy inside.

Call it whatever you want - misogyny, sexism, chauvinism - patriarchy affects everyone, even those in power and because of how dangerous this game can be, women must stop being afraid and speak up against this disease.

It is about time that we, as a nation, invest in leaders who can lead justly and provide the strengths, compassion and level-headedness needed to repair this broken country of ours. What we do not need right now is the same stale misogynist rhetoric being said or expressed by bitter and insecure men.

SYERLEENA ABDUL RASHID is DAP Wanita national assistant publicity secretary, Penang DAP assistant publicity secretary, Penang DAP Wanita political education director and MBPP councillor.