Hillary is hanging up her hat tomorrow, which makes me sad on several levels.
No, I don't think she should shoulder on and 'create further division' within the Democratic Party, that is not the origin of my sadness.
What has me down is just how screwed up the whole gender issue is, even now, even here, in the grand ol' US of A. Oh, I know, "But Tamsen, things are better there than they are in so many other countries. Women have even been able to vote for the last 80 years!". Yes, all true- and maybe makes things worse.
This is the top of the mountaintop, yet it has not changed that a man garners more respect than a woman, even if saying the same words. It has not changed that a strong tone from a man is considered, well, strong- commanding, a mark of leadership- and from a woman the same ball-busting and shrill. What has changed is that even women are in on the game. Instead of finding articles out in the great World Wide Web of Hillary's fortitude, her tirelessness, her political skills (hate her or not, she didn't just float on a giggle to the running), I see two sorts of vicious cattiness couched in a guise of feminism. The first is that she dared to mention sex had anything to do with how the media portrayed her (because, really, the media IS running the show, or Obama would not be on top right now as the Manchurian Candidate). The second is that she didn't use that card enough- that she's cut her hair short, that she wears pantsuits, that this is obvious male pandering and she is setting the movement back.
Well. A big "fuck you" to you, girls, because if anything was detrimental to how women are regarded, it was the stereotypical bitch-biting that didn't concentrate on any of the actual, you know, campaign issues, and instead focused on the color of Hil's jackets and whether her Slight Tearing Up was going to screw up her message.
I don't believe in a movement. I did believe in progress. Now I believe more in John Lennon nailing it, only the perpetrators are gaining size. The so-called Feminists are now like those women who insist that their daughters be circumcised because they were circumcised themselves, and the men just shrug and walk away with a, "well, if they don't care about it, what can I do" attitude- rightly so.
I can't imagine how screwed up this next generation of girls are going to be in their mid-thirties, when they are raised that being like Paris Hilton or her crew is something attainable and positive to aspire to (have ya seen the Bratz dolls? seriously?), but to be like Hillary Clinton, with all her degrees, poise, and tireless will, is to be a demon.
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