Just smile and murmur politely, or you're in for it ...

Apparently it’s sexism week in coverage of the Democratic presidential primary. Ha, just kidding: Like there’s only one week when sexism rules coverage of anything Hillary Clinton is involved in. And no matter who you support in this primary, if you think that generally speaking it would be good if women could exist in public life on an equal basis, you should be angry about the kind of coverage we’re seeing.

And speaking of angry. According to the New York Times, in Thursday night’s debate, Clinton appeared “tense and even angry at times,” while Bernie Sanders “largely kept his cool.” Clinton “accused” and “lobb[ed] her harshest assault yet,” displaying “ferocity” and “vitriol.” Sanders, meanwhile, appears from Jonathan Martin and Patrick Healy’s account to have been some manner of puppy dog. Maybe there was a difference in their demeanors, but think what a male candidate would have to do to draw that kind of language. Men get to be intense or passionate in reporter-speak. Women are sent straight to anger.

Then there’s this, from the editor in chief at The Hill:

x When Hillary Clinton raises her voice, she loses. — Bob Cusack (@BobCusack) February 5, 2016

Let’s face it: raising your voice is part of political speaking. God knows Bernie Sanders deploys the raised voice with abundance. But with him it reads as—again—intensity, passion, or, in the most critical case, cranky grandpa. Marco Rubio raises his voice, and it reveals his voice to lack resonance and be maybe a little nasal, but we don’t hear about how that’s a liability for him as a politician. Chris Christie? If reporters thought that when Christie raises his voice, he loses, he’d be a national joke—if he’d ever been taken seriously enough for the nation to know who he was. But Hillary Clinton? Nooo, that’s unacceptable and terrible and saying so doesn’t even require explanation because we all get it.

It’s a standard part of the political discussion to tear into Clinton’s voice and tone where you’d never, short of the Dean scream, mention a man in that way. MSNBC’s Morning Joe did a whole segment​ on it the other morning, and by “on it,” I don’t mean criticizing the inherent sexism, I mean Bob Woodward saying she should “get off this screaming stuff.” And the one other national level politician for whom a raised voice is as risky a proposition is Barack Obama. That should tell you something about power and the right to show anger.

Think what you want about Hillary Clinton. But until women in politics are allowed to display the same range of emotion and tone as men in politics, without journalists piling on about how unnatural and angry and unpleasant they’re being, we have a serious problem.