Note: A slightly edited version of the following entry ran as an op-ed piece in the Ann Arbor News on February 20th. It can be seen here.
As a native liberal New Yorker I have had issues with Hillary Clinton ever since she won the New York Senatorial seat in 2000. There have been a myriad of reasons why I’ve dislike her and her legislative record was but one. I’ve spoken harshly of her for many years but I’ve never once seen that my opinions were in any way tied to issues of sexism on my part – that is until now.
The other day Cynthia sent me the following article by renowned feminist Robin Morgan. In the article Morgan details latent (and not so latent) sexist attitudes regarding Senator Clinton. After reading it I feel the need for a mea culpa regarding my own words and attitudes towards the Senator.
As a man who has always identified himself as a feminist, Morgan’s article makes me feel ashamed because now I see that no matter how much I’ve declared I was not acting in a sexist manner towards the Senator, in reality I was. Sarah used to struggle with my vernacular and attitudes towards the Senator. Though I would declare that my attitude had nothing to do with Clinton’s gender, it did but I just could not see it at the time. Sarah was horrified that like many Americans, I would use terms like ‘cold’ and ‘shrill’ to describe Senator Clinton. I never would have used those terms to describe a man.
Shame on me.
America is at an amazing crossroad. This fall either a woman or an African American will be the Democratic nominee for President. A generation ago this would have been unthinkable. It is this dichotomy between a Woman and an African American that is at the heart of Morgan’s article. Morgan states:
“Goodbye to the [Hillary] nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged – and they would not be selling it in airports.”
It was this point in the article that caused me to stop and look at my own behavior. Last summer I jokingly wrote about that nutcracker here on daddyo and insinuated how some of my female friends would be insulted if I were to get one of these.
Shame on Me.
In discussing the derogatory terms used against Senator Clinton, my friends Annie and Alison reminded me of the 80’s when women first started gaining power in the boardroom. They pointed out how those pioneering women had to be tougher than any man in order to prove they were suited to run a corporation. Morgan discusses this very issue when she said;
“Goodbye to the phrase ‘polarizing figure’ to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the women’s movement that quipped, ‘We are becoming the men we wanted to marry.’ She heard us, and she has.”
I can choose not to support Senator Clinton, but if I do it must be based on her record as a legislator, not because of the sound of her voice or the toughness of her demeanor. To do otherwise is to throw away all that I learned watching women like my mother fight for the rights they deserved back in the 70’s. In 1972 my mother worked for Shirley Chisholm when she was the first major party African American candidate for President, winning 162 delegates. If my mother were alive today she would be amazed and very proud about how far women have come in the past 35 years. But in looking at our treatment of Senator Clinton, apparently women have not come as far they should.
Maybe I don’t agree with Senator Clinton’s political views, but just this evening it occurred to me that if Clinton becomes president, the idea of the next Shirley Chisholm becoming president is a very real possibility. If Clinton becomes president the glass ceiling will finally be shattered. If Clinton becomes president then my 17 year-old daughter and the women of her generation will know no limits. Thinking of the 2008 election this way now makes me see how a win by either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton means that millions of people who have been disenfranchised since the founding of this country will be validated in the way that white males have always known. If we continue to judge Senator Clinton based on anything other than her skill and power as a politician, then we have not come as far as a country as we would like to think.
Shame on us.