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Sexism for the win! Could prejudice bring it home for Hillary Clinton in 2016? [View all]
America’s first female president, brought to you by . . . sexism!
It’s been six years since a heckler yelled “Iron my shirt!” at a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign event shortly before the New Hampshire primary. Since MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called Clinton “Nurse Ratched” and commented on her “cackle.” And since a guest on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show lamented that a female president would be undermined by “PMS and mood swings.”
If Clinton runs again, it’s doubtful that we’ll see the same level of sexist vitriol against her. And that makes me, well, a little sad. If the misogyny flows as freely in 2016 as it did during Clinton’s first presidential run, the Republicans are doomed. They’re already in trouble with female voters, and it wouldn’t take much to erode that standing further. So bring on the Todd Akins, the “life’s a bitch, don’t vote for one” T-shirts, the knee-jerk Hillary haters. This time around, it will only make her stronger.
The world of gender politics has changed in the past six years. The sexist swipes that were normal then won’t fly in a post-“war on women” culture. Feminism has hit a tipping point. Stories such as the rape in Steubenville, Ohio, or Mike Huckabee’s comments on women’s libido and “Uncle Sugar” previously went unremarked outside of feminist circles; now, they’re up for widespread public debate.
This month, Time featured a story on Clinton’s possible 2016 run, with Clinton represented on the magazine’s cover as a giant high heel trampling a tiny man. “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?” the headline asked. The image, which played on old stereotypes reducing women to shoes and clothes, elicited some outrage but also much collective eye-rolling, because it felt like a throwback to another era. Slate’s Amanda Hess called it “sexist and hacky”; the Huffington Post and Marie Claire also denounced it. Mommy blogs got mad, too. “Why, when we’re talking about a professional, powerful woman,” Maria Guidoasked on Mommyish.com, “do we oftentimes default to an image of her trampling over men to get to the top? . . . Women read your magazine, you realize this, right?”
It’s been six years since a heckler yelled “Iron my shirt!” at a Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign event shortly before the New Hampshire primary. Since MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called Clinton “Nurse Ratched” and commented on her “cackle.” And since a guest on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show lamented that a female president would be undermined by “PMS and mood swings.”
If Clinton runs again, it’s doubtful that we’ll see the same level of sexist vitriol against her. And that makes me, well, a little sad. If the misogyny flows as freely in 2016 as it did during Clinton’s first presidential run, the Republicans are doomed. They’re already in trouble with female voters, and it wouldn’t take much to erode that standing further. So bring on the Todd Akins, the “life’s a bitch, don’t vote for one” T-shirts, the knee-jerk Hillary haters. This time around, it will only make her stronger.
The world of gender politics has changed in the past six years. The sexist swipes that were normal then won’t fly in a post-“war on women” culture. Feminism has hit a tipping point. Stories such as the rape in Steubenville, Ohio, or Mike Huckabee’s comments on women’s libido and “Uncle Sugar” previously went unremarked outside of feminist circles; now, they’re up for widespread public debate.
This month, Time featured a story on Clinton’s possible 2016 run, with Clinton represented on the magazine’s cover as a giant high heel trampling a tiny man. “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?” the headline asked. The image, which played on old stereotypes reducing women to shoes and clothes, elicited some outrage but also much collective eye-rolling, because it felt like a throwback to another era. Slate’s Amanda Hess called it “sexist and hacky”; the Huffington Post and Marie Claire also denounced it. Mommy blogs got mad, too. “Why, when we’re talking about a professional, powerful woman,” Maria Guidoasked on Mommyish.com, “do we oftentimes default to an image of her trampling over men to get to the top? . . . Women read your magazine, you realize this, right?”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sexism-for-the-win-could-prejudice-bring-it-home-for-hillary-clinton-in-2016/2014/01/24/ee61eb00-8450-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html
82 replies
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