He has a long history of fighting for women.

Bernie Sanders, the presidential candidate from Vermont (for those trying the Internet for the first time), has recently been labeled by some as sexist and has had to face accusatory questions about comments made by people in his team. Calling Bernie Sanders sexist is fucking ridiculous.

First of all, just to clear the air, he has an incredible voting record when it comes to supporting women’s rights. He’s voted in favor of or co-sponsored bills that address the pay gap, women’s health, helping abused women and much more. Let’s not even talk about the fact he self-identifies as a feminist and move on to the specific reasons people are claiming him or people in his campaign are sexist.

One reason Sanders has been called sexist is because he said the following during the first Democratic debate:

“As a senator from a rural state, what I can tell Secretary Clinton, that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what I would hope all of us want, and that is keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have those guns and end this horrible violence that we are seeing.”

Seems harmless, right? Well, Clinton responded by saying that “when women talk, some people think we’re shouting” during a speech over a week later. She referenced this during more than one public talk, and it’s clear she’s claiming Sanders has been sexist by painting her as an overly emotional woman of some kind. The problem is, as Slate’s Will Saletan has pointed out, he’s used the same “shouting” phrasing when talking about male politicians.

Another reason Sanders has been portrayed as sexist is based on something his campaign manager Jeff Weaver was quoted saying about Clinton in a Bloomberg article from Oct. 28:

“Look, she’d make a great vice president,” he said. “We’re willing to give her more credit than Obama did. We’re willing to consider her for vice president. We’ll give her serious consideration. We’ll even interview her.”

This was clearly a joke and elucidated the fact that Sanders is in this to win it and has no interest in being Clinton’s vice president, which has been a question, but some of the more dreary among us claimed it was a sexist remark.

Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, an organization that works to elect pro-choice Democratic female candidates, didn’t see the humor. She called the comment sexist and said Clinton is “possibly most qualified ever to run & Americans know it.”

Now, ignoring the fact that Sanders has been an elected official for much longer than Clinton ever has, let’s just make it clear that Clinton is obviously qualified. Was Weaver’s comment sexist? No. Was it very funny? Not really. That said, a dumb joke like that one does not make someone sexist.

Furthermore, any claim that she’s just speaking out about this because she just wants to get Weaver in trouble is bullshit, because she’s obviously trying to put the word “sexist” right next to Sanders’ name. She’s calling him a sexist by proxy. If she’s not directly calling Sanders sexist, she’s at least saying he hires and trusts sexists, which we can agree isn’t great.

I also believe that Clinton and her supporters using the “sexist” word carelessly damages her credibility and makes it look as if her campaign can’t succeed without name calling.

Finally, the reason these claims should make you angry is the fact that sexism does exist. There are pay gaps all across this country. Women who are beaten are ignored in many places. Rape is so stigmatized that women often don’t report it. Supporting women’s rights and calling out true sexism is so important that someone characterizing a progressive ally of women as sexist should enrage everyone. When you call someone who’s clearly not racist a racist or someone’s who’s clearly not homophobic a homophobe, you trivialize and damage the cause you claim to support, and it hurts those that need support the most.

Battles are won by identifying the enemy and defeating them, not by imagining enemies and shooting blindly into the darkness.