It seems safe to assume that 20-something Ezra Klein would never refer to Barack Obama as boy. Given that there is a long and well documented history of the term boy being used to denigrate and demean black men, it would certainly sound like a racist insult if Klein called Barack Obama boy.
Some of us can recall (and some of us are merely members of the 'sanctimonious women's studies set') when the term girl was commonly used to denigrate and demean women. Although women's history is all but taboo in this country, women actually do have a long and well documented history of sexist oppression.
So when Ezra Klein uses the term girls to refer to Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (who are each old enough to be his mother), that certainly sounds like a sexist insult.
To add to the offense, Klein gets adolescently cute by writing a headline with the word swing next to the word girls: WILL THE MAINE GIRLS SWING?
Feminist Politics Misogyny News Gender Sexism Maine
