I imagine women reading this in 1972 exploded with fury. “Male chauvinist pig,” would’ve been the chosen epithet. Gloria Steinem would articulate a fiery response damning the master/slave dynamic, that sadomasochistic orientation which glorifies humiliation and pain and regards females as sexual objects. As a woman reading this 44 years later, I feel disturbing nausea; this bile in the mouth.

These are the ideas of U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who presents himself as the bringer-of-revolution. These are thoughts of a fully matured man, a college graduate, during one of the most profoundly revolutionary eras in American society. They represent misogyny at its bleakest; they are exactly the old school, male-dominated ideology that feminists battled in 1972 and still fight today.

After belittling women and establishing his sexual dominance in print, Bernard next encourages women to escape the bonds which he describes. “Women, for their own preservation, are trying to pull themselves together,” he tells his readers.

Bernard has no inkling that in giving his blessing to our struggle, he has separated himself from us and from our struggle. Just the phrase, “trying to pull themselves together,” is a diminishing five words that drips of condescension. Women are not falling apart, as he implies. No, society is screwed up. The patriarchal system that has women on their knees – in his essay, in every room, in every city, in every state – is what women are challenging. [Synch the chorus: You missed the point. You missed the point. You really missed the point.]

Mind you, before Bernard jots down his inconsequential thoughts, women have already begun the radical shift in minds with their analyses of patriarchy in Sisterhood Is Powerful; Kate Millet has published Sexual Politics; and females are finally admitting to faked orgasms and to their love for one another.

https://gobling.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/bernard-sanders-and-the-man-woman-thing/