People are saying Bolsonaro’s response to the Amazon fires is exposing a sexist myth about male leaders

People are saying Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s response to the Amazon fires has exposed a sexist myth about male leaders.

There is a long-running stereotype in Western politics that women are more emotional than men, which has been used to dismiss female leaders as unpredictable or weak.

But right now, the world is full of emotional and unpredictable men and a worrying amount of them are running some of world’s most powerful countries.

Take Bolsonaro for example...

The Brazilian president has recently faced global criticism for his government’s slow response to fires in the Amazon Rainforest.

At the G7 summit over the weekend, leaders from seven major countries agreed to offer $20m to help fight the fires along with a long-term plan to protect the area.

However, Bolsonaro decided to reject that offer… because France’s president Emmanuel Macron had hurt his feelings.

Yep, you read that right. The President of Brazil has rejected an offer to help him put our the fires currently raging in the Amazon rainforest purely because another President (Macron) called him out once.

You would struggle to find a more textbook example of a leader letting their emotions get in the way of their decision-making.

And on social media, many people pointed out how the reaction disproved the idea that male leaders are rational or unemotional by default.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump was putting on another outstanding display of insecurity on his Twitter account yesterday when he lashed out against “Fake News” again…

It goes to show that being too emotional isn't a gendered problem - some people just might not be up to the job.

More: Here's a list of all the women that Trump has called 'nasty'