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• Monday, February 25, 2008 07:22 PM

  Here we go again...

  This sort of tripe is the worst kind of pandering to a dying sort of philosophy. Yes, there are men who will vote for a candidate because he is a male, and women who will do the same for a female. And we will always have these sorts of people. Unfortunately.

  And there has been a bit of a gender split recently. But think back to November when Clinton assured anyone and everyone that she WOULD be the Democratic nominee. She was leading in polls for both genders. And now, Obama is poised to take the lead in the women's vote. We can argue why (and goodness knows we do to no end in these posts), but unless the vast majority of polls have been complete rubbish (yet another topic for another time), facts are facts.

  Both Ellen Goodman and Maureen Dowd of the Boston Globe and NYT, respectively, have noted that Obama's politics embraces a more feminine flavor than Clinton's. While we cannot be sure as to why, it would seem that Clinton is stuck in a past where women's liberation was wrapped up in cutting away (I use that term very deliberately) a woman's feminine identity. How would a woman get ahead thirty years ago? By espousing masculine archetypes, from authoritarianism to aggression to preferring hard cold facts to any possibility of idealistic hopes.

  But nowadays, a woman is often able to move ahead by being comfortable in her own skin, and being feminine in all sorts of ways. I have one co-worker who is a flannel-wearing, truck-driving lesbian, and another who wears high cut leather boots and cute little tops and a ponytail. But they both excel at what they do, and have done it by being THEMSELVES. Hell, I picked up my computer at the shop today from a Mac geek so cute and yet utterly formidable with her Allen wrench, a soldering kit, and a magnifying glass. Her being feminine did not diminish my faith in her ability to do a kickass repair job on my machine whatsoever.

  My point? Many people are realizing that, in their first real shot at voting a woman into office, they are just getting someone with external female characteristics. Hell, I'd bet that Hillary has a bigger set of brass ones than Bill. (As an aside, we all owe those in the equal rights movement their sacrifice of femininity to get women where they are now, but I sure as hell won't give away my vote as some sort of consolation prize.)

  But so many of us don't want a bitch/bastard/asshole right now; we've had more than enough of those lately. We'll give Barack a shot and see where it goes.

  And I will hope for a woman who comes along for office who is not afraid to paint her long nails pink; that, or wear her Carhartts to Home Depot where she picks up twelve two-by fours and an 18-volt power drill.

  —Jay Bee Read Jay Bee's other letters
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