Crone
Offered as expansions on a previous post about the visceral and knee-jerk reviling of candidate Hillary Clinton (The Rest of the Story) are the following two articles.
The bottom line seems to be old-fashioned sexism, which causes the bile of many to rise publicly in what appears to be fairly acceptable slurs. Sexism is something more pervasive, permissible and corrosive today than racism.
Implicit in racism is the idea that the black man is, after all, a man. Many racists are mightily conflicted by the idea that black men do, after all, have an important function in society -- whatever they deem that function to be. But always, the role of the woman is that of the subjugated member, regardless of her color.
Stanley Fish, with whom I usually disagree, has a good column on Hillary-hatred here.
For a more in-depth and personal insight, see Robin Morgan's piece at the Women's Media Center, "Goodbye to All That (#2)".
The bottom line seems to be old-fashioned sexism, which causes the bile of many to rise publicly in what appears to be fairly acceptable slurs. Sexism is something more pervasive, permissible and corrosive today than racism.
Implicit in racism is the idea that the black man is, after all, a man. Many racists are mightily conflicted by the idea that black men do, after all, have an important function in society -- whatever they deem that function to be. But always, the role of the woman is that of the subjugated member, regardless of her color.
Stanley Fish, with whom I usually disagree, has a good column on Hillary-hatred here.
For a more in-depth and personal insight, see Robin Morgan's piece at the Women's Media Center, "Goodbye to All That (#2)".
Labels: hillary hatred, sexism in the election
posted by Lisa at 9:04 PM
8 Comments:
A woman AND a Clinton...my goodness, the cannibals of the GOP must be licking their lips in anticipation. I agree with the writer at the Orcinus blog that the heavy doses of misogynism go right along with the pseudo or proto-fascism that is rearing its head in American politics. Gotta keep the little woman in her place...
Well the Judeo- Christian and Muslim reigions are patriarchal to the core, so yes woman are assumed to be under the dominion of the male.
I think it's revealing and hilarious that the Trinty is composed of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Apparently no female is necessary for creating the univese. Where is God the Mother? You don't hear much about Mother Earth anymore.
Personally I think that if the male urges to competition instead of cooperation, and war instead of negotiation are not tempered by the female talents for cooperation our country and human life is doomed to self destruct.
The Phony War on Terror has given the Neo- cons and Militarists all they need to scare the public into supporting warlike male behaviour. Militarism is on the rise in America and this goes hand in hand with denigrating women. Did you you see William Kristols comments about "white women" on Crooks and Liars?
buzz,
I've always found the Trinity concept odd. Mary is introduced in some kind of odd and separate fashion, along with the Virgin Birth, which in biology we call parthenogenesis. In the world of Jerry Springer, we might call it "plausible denial," I s'pose.
Certainly, we've all been damned since the subordinate Eve too curiously took a bite.
Mother Earth had a nice little recrudescence in the 60's, but I think she hasn't found her place in the pantheon since Greco-Roman days. Thank you for the ref., I will check it out.
labrys,
It's all about control, isn't it? That's one impulse that runs on all circuits.
Equal opportunity slams are to be expected, but it is unsavory and hypocritical to socially condemn certain slams, while condoning others.
Lisa,
The William Kristol video on Crooks and Liars was on Feb 3.
It's titled " White women are a problem"
buzz,
First, I see it was on FOX "news," which means it hardly merits further dialog. By definition the things presented there will be wing-nut crazy.
Misogyny is no surprise. The surprise is when it's uttered openly.
This reminds me of a story from my mother's school days. She overheard a vitriolic anti-Semitic rant from one of her classmates, in the presence of a Jewish student. Someone in the group suggested to her that she apologize to the girl for the affront.
When she did, the girl reproached her: "You're not sorry that you said it; you're sorry that I heard." That is what this is about.
I'm not angry that FOX news gives us entre into the world of bigots; I am sorry that people still harbor those ancient prejudices.
Well, regarding the whole sexism vs. racism thing, I just have one comment. There has been a number of woman governors of conservative states -- e.g., Kathleen Blanco in Louisiana, Ann Richards in Texas, Janet Napolitano in Arizona, and the list goes on. There have been no (zero) black people elected governor in conservative states.
In other words, I just don't buy this "everybody hates Hillary because she's a woman" thing. The irrational hatred isn't because she's a woman. It's because she's a Clinton. And as the only Democratic president since FDR to serve a full two terms of office, Bill Clinton is everything that conservatives and the media they own hate. They're going after Hillary because they fear she could be the *next* Democrat, the next Clinton, to successfully serve eight years in office, not because she's a woman. If Bill was allowed to run for another term of office they'd be going after him just as hard, because the Clintons effin' *scare* them.
Obama... well, the conservative media and conservative press aren't all that scared of him, because they know something that apparently Democrats have forgotten -- while you can win the Democratic nomination on the strength of black votes, you cannot win the Presidential election on the strength of black votes. It just does not work that way. And the only state where Obama has thus far won the majority of the white vote is... uhm... ah... err... well. Like I said, racism is *far* from dead in the United States of America...
- Badtux the Practical Penguin
badtux,
Certainly there's truth in what you say: the conservatives have more to fear from Clinton than Obama. Also, racism is alive and well, and that abomination cuts both ways, as we can see in the primary results.
But that doesn't detract from my point, which is that sexism is an EOE.
Post a Comment
<< Home