Letters to the Editor
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Sexism
Re: " Not the least of which is: sexism is alive and well"
You know what? If Democratic women had voted for Hillary in the same numbers that black voters had voted for Obama, Hillary would have won these primaries in landslide. Blacks understand the historical significance Obama holds for them, but women don't understand the significance Hillary holds for us.
Most of us don't even know our own history in America. You can turn on PBS and see the Civil Rights Movement every week, but do you ever see anything about how women got the right to vote or about the feminist movement of the 60s? No. Today, these female leaders are degraded in our culture and dismissed as shrews, harpies, etc.
Young women aren't taught anything about any of the women's movements, unless they attend college and enroll in a women's studies class. Obviously, the majority of women in America can't do this.
If you are a young woman in her 20s, you have grown up in a culture that routinely degrades women in music and movies by calling them b*tches and h*oes, and the most prominent twenty something women in the media are mentally ill, addicted, and vapid: Brittney, Lindsay, Paris. Or missing and presumed dead like Natalie Holloway, or pregnant and missing and later found dead like Lacy Petersen, and the female marine whose body was found buried in her boyfriend's backyard.
They also see commercials for degrading enterprises like "Girls Gone Wild." They can turn on the TV and see highly paid women who have mutilated their faces with plastic surgery. Moreover, more than a few of these young girls are conditioned to hate their bodies to the point of eating themselves into a stupor or starving themselves into double digits.
They have just seen the first viable female presidential candidate in history called a "pimp," and heard Chris Matthews say that she only has her Senate seat, not because she won two elections, but because her husband "messed around."
Meanwhile her opponent, a man with the thinnest resume of any recent presidential candidate, gets a free pass. No hard questions, or any questions, and no examination of his meager legislative record, or his shady business deals. I contend that if the Democratic front runner had not been a woman, he would not have been able to raise the money to run.
Sexism is not only alive and well, but encoraged and accepted.
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@ncawley
A Hillary apologist telling me to move on! Hilarious.
And you accuse me of attempting to change the subject. Well, I think this whole manufactured controversy was an attempt by Hillary and Co. to change the subject from the disarray in their campaign.
And BTW, it's not Mr. Anonymous. It's MS. Anonymous. I've been a feminist for 35 years -- roughly the length of service HRC claims -- and I speak from a lifetime of experience: We need to choose our battles.
A trumped-up controversy over "pimping out" (a phrase of whose meanings I'm well aware, thanks very much) isn't a worthy battle.
Now, settle down boys and girls, and try doing some real work.
Peace to all.
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Misunderstandings
"Blacks understand the historical significance Obama holds for them, but women don't understand the significance Hillary holds for us."
And some don't understand that some women are black, and some blacks are women.
I mostly agree with you. But, I think you're misunderstanding that Obama is not running as a "black" candidate. More than just blacks identify with him. Clinton is increasingly running as a "women's" candidate. You're right that according to the math, that should give her victories. But it seems her reductionist approach risks narrowing her base to just older white women, women like her. That's the danger of identity politics taken to the extreme--people have multiple identities.
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The Bargainer
Re: "But, I think you're misunderstanding that Obama is not running as a "black" candidate."
He used the race card against Bill and Hillary. "Fairy tale" is racist and so is saying that LBJ signed the civil rights bill. He used race very deftly and was able to sideline Bill.
http://dcdl.org/2008/01/18/shelby-steele-on-obama
A bargainer is a black who enters the American, the white American mainstream by saying to whites in effect, in some code form, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m not going to rub the shame of American history in your face if you will not hold my race against me. Whites then respond with enormous gratitude. And bargainers are usually extremely popular people. Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier back in the Sixties and so forth. Because they give whites this benefit of the doubt. That you can be with these people and not feel that you’re going to be charged with racism at any instant. And so they tend to be very successful, very popular.
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Nice To See.....Always Blame the Woman...It is the safest thing to do...
Nice to see all the supporters of women have made it to the site and have addressed the issue at hand.
Nice to see women defend a woman and her daughter.
Nice to see men defend a woman and her daughter.
Nice to see that so many of the comments are so negative towards Senator Clinton for no reason.
Nice to see that we are all true to the statement: "all MEN are created equal"
Nice to see the comments, which show women are still considered the second class.
Nice to see that we have all found our meaning of "Unity".
Oh, it is so nice to see women will always be treated like they are nothing, they have not accomplished anything and they should be held responsible for all crimes towards them.
Nice to see nothing has changed.....
Good night and may God bless you all.
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Women's Candidate
Re: "Clinton is increasingly running as a "women's" candidate."
No she isn't. Her votes come from all demographic groups.
If you get a majority of the women's vote, along with votes from every other demographic, you are running as a women's candidate?
Obama is getting something like 90% of the black vote, a majority of the men's vote, splitting the white vote and losing the Latino vote, but he's not the black candidate? Or the male candidate?
Double standard.