My friend Nancy sent me this fabulous Salon.com essay by Joan Walsh about what Obama must do to win over Hillary's constituency--especially women. Especially middle-aged women, who were brutalized by this campaign.
I've been stunned by the extent to which trashing Clinton supporters as washed up old white women is acceptable,Walsh writes. A writer whose work I respect submitted a piece addressed to "old white feminists," telling them to get out of Obama's way. I've found my own writing often dismissed not on its merits (or lack thereof) but because as a woman who will turn 50 in September, I'm supposed to be Clinton's demographic. Salon's letters pages, as well as the comments sections around the blogosphere, are studded with dismissive, derisive references to bitter old white women.
I'm all verklempt.
6 comments:
Stop being verklempt and get out there and take action! That's what I did when, this past December a few months before my 60th birthday, I decided to stop waiting for people to say YES to me and to say YES to myself. I wrote about this as a June 3rd guest post at www.overthehillchick.blogspot.com. It's time we old white women took control of our own paths.
Thanks, Phyllis--and congratulations on your book.
I'm verklempt to read an essay articulating so well the nagging, itchy anger I feel. I'm happpy verklempt.
You made me laugh about shaving our legs for all important occasions. Nowadays if we wear pants to those occasions, do we still need to shave? I'm about to write a post (about officers' wives and pants in 1970) for www.mrslieutenant.blogspot.com in connection with the death of Yves Saint Laurent (who is mentioned in my novel in connection with towels and washcloths). Apparently he is credited with making pants "respectable for respectable women to wear."
Okay, I'm not an older female and I don't see all things with your spin, but I have a hard trouble seeing where Hillary was singled out for abuse. The long primary season was tough for both candidates. Did Hillary have to renounce her church membership that was a part of his life for over 20 years? Obama had to take his share of criticism too. I'm sure there are more sour grapes when you come up on the short end of the polls. Most of the abuse for Hillary came from the press and not the Obama campaign. I am an Obama supporter, but if Hillary had won the nomination I would have no reservations at all with supporting her. In todays world, any Democrat is always better than any Republican.
Even Jon Stewart--who has been very hard on Hillary--had a montage of sexist commentary about Hillary's candidacy...numerous pundits saying that men wouldn't vote for her because she would sound like a nagging wife, for one. Or discussions of her cleavage.
And how 'bout that Hillary nutcracker? (Yeah, they really exist, I saw one in a story. I thought they might be mythical.) Can you give me a comparable example mocking Obama's race that wouldn't cause a massive hue and cry? (One of my favorite unanswerable questions: What is the male equivalent of pussy whipped?)
Obama had to quit his church for good reason.
To my mind, what the essay discusses (it's worth reading the whole thing--my statistics show that nobody clicked through to read it) is less the sexism aimed directly at Hillary but the sexism/ageism that her campaign brought to the surface--and anyone who objects is mocked as an outdated, old-school feminist.
Comparable racism would cause rioting.
...oh, and yeah, Obama does need to reach out to soothe bruised feelings. I'll vote for him and have nothing against him, but the punditry and many individuals who backed him require me to take a deep breath and find my rational place in order to do so. (And my rational place says I'd vote for a hedgehog over McCain.)
Hillary supporters mostly said Obama lacks experience. Many Obama supporters painted Hillary as an evil empire.
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