The higher women climb, the thinner the air, the starker the double standard becomes. As Kamala Harris’s mother likes to say, none of us have fallen from coconut trees – we all exist in a context, in terms of what surrounds us, and what came before us. Harris has not fallen from a tree to suddenly find herself running for president.

For three decades, she worked as a prosecutor and attorney-general, then a senator. She has spent the past four years as vice president, doing a job that no woman or black person had done before – and is now running for another position that has been the preserve of men – and almost exclusively white men, for centuries.

Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns this week. Credit: AP/Kayla Wolf

This is the context into which Harris now walks. These are the standards, the images, the ways by which she will be judged – the rows of white men.

Her opponent, Donald Trump, is a businessman and reality TV star whose third wife is increasingly absent from his rallies and events. Who is a convicted felon, who has been found in a civil case to have raped – or sexually abused – a woman. Who has committed fraud and allegedly slept with a porn star – without a condom – when his wife was pregnant. Who has insulted people with disabilities, women and veterans, yet has galvanised and electrified millions.

So what have we heard? Which objections have been raised to Harris’ candidacy in the past few days? She laughs too much. She is “too hot”. She was “crowned” by Biden. She is a woman. She is black. She is a black woman.

It didn’t take long for sexist, slutty slurs to snake then swarm through social media channels. Analysis by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) found that over last weekend, hateful, violent remarks directed at Harris soared – on Truth Social (by 33 per cent), Telegram (50 per cent), Gab (292 per cent) and 4chan........

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