Girl Power


The last thing I want to do is get into a pissing match with others online. Having covered this world, I know how quickly the petty disagreements escalate and how easily they get blown way out of proportion.

However…

I’m finding out some female bloggers are taking me to task for claiming I haven’t seen evidence of sexism in the current Democratic primary. And even reading through Melissa’s collection of alleged examples (She’s got more than 100. I checked out a few), I’m not convinced. (quick note: Melissa may not remember, but we’ve had really good rapport in the past. I’ve got absolutely no beef.)

Perhaps my skin’s a little thicker than most when it comes to gender-related issues. I’ve always been more of a guys’ girl and tend to think if someone thinks I’m less (less capable, less savvy, less intelligent) because I’m female, then that’s his problem, not mine.

Yes, guys say dumb sh*t about women all the time. I’m not saying that dumb men haven’t said dumb things about Senator Clinton throughout this primary season. But don’t mistake anti-Clinton sentiment for sexism. There is a distinction. The Clintons – for a variety of reasons – elicit strong emotion – both good and bad. Much of what’s being pointed out as sexist – discriminatory based on gender – is better defined as anti-Clinton than anti-woman.

Women often have to work harder to get half the credit. We still make less coin on the dollar in salary. We don’t hold equal seats in government or in corporate America. But, we’re making strides every day, and now, we’re running for President. That said, I think it does women a disservice to play the sexism card at this stage in the game in this particular circumstance. Senator Clinton is a tough cookie. She’s proven to be a solid politician and a strong Senator. She made an admirable run at the top political spot in the nation.

But she got beat by a guy who, frankly, is turning out to be an extraordinary candidate. Against anyone else, Clinton probably would have won as easily as she had expected. There were a lot – A LOT – of voters on her side at the start of this thing. Myself included. I wasn’t convinced Obama was more than hype and doubted he had the experience and qualifications to be President. But then his message started to resonate, and Clinton started to get scared. Her team doled out some rotten advice, and she became everything we’re tired of in Washington. The politician who lies, who twists, who spins. Male or female…it’s ugly. And after 8 years of Bush/Cheney et al…we’re done.

Neanderthal men who think women belong in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant are not a large enough demographic to be holding Senator Clinton back from clinching this nomination, and claiming that’s her downfall is both disingenuous and bad form. Save the fight for when it matters. When there is real discrimination based on sex. If anything, the press has been infinitely generous with Clinton – keeping her in this race long after the math proved Obama’s delegate lead insurmountable. Again, she’s not losing because she’s a woman. She’s losing because she got bad campaign advice and ran with it.

If you listened to my podcast commentary, I made it very clear I was excited by the idea of the first female President. I just don’t think Clinton’s turned out to be that female. That doesn’t make me naive or a traitor to my gender. If anything, it does us some justice. One of us is going to make an exceptional Commander-in-Chief someday.

I just want my President to be someone I can look up to and be proud of as a human being. Gender aside, Clinton is not that person.

p.s. Before anyone goes batsh*t crazy over the Spice Girls reference, it’s a goof. Get over it.

5 thoughts on “Girl Power”

  1. You rule Jax — very well said.

    And I ignore most of what Melissa has to say because she’s unattractive and likely unwilling to go make me a sandwich.

  2. jacki, i think that you are supposed to just support Hillary! because she’s a woman and it’s her turn now, i mean, she even became a yankees fan in order to run for president(technically senator first but that was just a convenient stepping stone), and as a red sox fan, i know that someone would have to be pretty desperate to become a yanks fan just to run for president. at least that’s how i see it. do not question Hillary. the Hillary must be obeyed. her desperation is exceeded only by her pathetic campaign “advisors”/workers who also thought they had gotten on board for 8 years of mostly taxpayer funded lifestyles. please write a post about terry mccauliffe(sp) he’s the bagdad bob of campaign advising if there ever was one.

  3. I think there’s been sexism from the media (not just Matthews, there was MSNBC’s Shuster’s pimp Chelsea and CNN’s Castellanos arguing it is ok to call Hillary a B-word on tv, to name a few) and from all sorts of voters (all you have to do is read most any comment thread that mentions Hillary and it’s filled with that B-word and much worse) that of course stems from Hillary-hatred, but I think it’s not wrong to call it sexist.

    That said, it’s been no worse than the racism (Appalachians, I’m talking to you, but not just you. That Curious George T-shirt guy in GA for example, oh and that ex-President what’s-his-name running around saying things like this state didn’t matter because Jesse Jackson won it too or that ex-VP candidate what’s-her-name saying Obama is an affirmative action candidate, and so on) and despite it both Hillary and Barack have received more primary votes than any candidate in our nation’s history.

    Running for President is hard. It’s not supposed to be fair, and if it wasn’t a biased process we wouldn’t have had 43 white male Christian Presidents in a row now would we? Get over it. If they didn’t know what they were getting into beforehand they were too stupid to play the game in the first place, and shouting “unfair!” at this point just because your candidate lost is plainly pathetic. A black man just won the Democratic nomination for President and likely will go on to become our 44th President, and a woman came in an oh-but-so-close second with plenty enough delegates of her own to spoil any Veep choice Obama tries to make by nominating her on the convention floor to force Hillary on the ticket if they want to. Them’s is major accomplishments indeed, and nothing to whine about.

  4. If the sexism of the US is too much for her to handle, how in the world will she, as President, handle the institutional sexism in the MidEast, Asia and Latin America? She’s almost saying she’s unqualified for the job.

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