Yes, Being Perceived as a Liar DOES Have a Sex
and often a color. Women and minorities are routinely assumed to be behaving in underhanded ways when they attempt to be part of the social arena in ways that encroach on the comfort of white men.
Ingrained sexism permeates our culture's assessment of women's honesty, particularly when a male is being challenged. That is the reason Hillary always has extremely high favorables until she decides to run for office. Not a word needs to be said, the numbers drop and steepen precipitously as soon as there is a viable male opponent in the race.
A very glaring example of this "male challenge" phenomenon is the rape case of Bill Cosby. Despite more than 50 women coming forward to describe their attacks and a civil case in which he admitted to assault, they are still being discounted as liars, opportunists or looking for attention. Most rape victims do not come forward because they know they will not be believed and that their reputations will be tarnished. They will be victimized again.
The untrustworthiness belief extends to characterizations of single mothers as "welfare queens" who must be simply gaming the system so they can take public funds at their leisure.
It extends to women who are targeted because they produce "anchor babies" to dodge immigration laws.
It is implicit in every characterization of a woman who marries someone of means as a "gold digger" who is selfishly taking advantage of a man for her own materialistic purposes.
It is embedded in most of our major religions which preclude women from leading a service because they are incapable of interpreting "God's word" in a reliable way. Women being untrustworthy is the running narrative in virtually every Judeo/Christian/Islamic story and actually holds women accountable for the "sins of man".
It is the unabashed core of the Madonna/Whore narrative that is alive and thriving in every sphere of our culture from boardrooms to bedrooms. It is what gives rise to memes about "hoes" and "whores", women who are tainted and have a bankruptcy of character never attributed to men. It is the same impulse that allows people to see "dishonesty" in a woman who is the victim of a philandering husband and hold her accountable for decisions she makes in reaction thereto.
When are women considered reliable, good, honest and trustworthy? When they are virginal or motherly or in professions that cater to the welfare of others, particularly children.
It was not that long ago that women were not considered rational or trustworthy enough to vote.
Sexism is not limited to dialogue that is focused on the physical attributes of women but also those which impugn their characters for behaving in far less egregious ways then men. That said, every time anyone references a vagina with respect to voting is reducing candidates and half the voters to anatomy, much like those who reduce Obama and PoC to the color of their skin. The fact that there are people with whom both these candidates, by virtue of their gender or race minority status, share histories that compels them to recognize their own lived experiences in them, can in no way can be reduced to "reverse" racism or sexism. Those terms cannot even be considered legitimate in a culture in which the odds are so steeply stacked against them.
http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2013-11-how-we-teach-our-kids-that-women-are-liars