This particular paragraph of Hilary Rosen’s post on continuing to support Clinton hit home for me, and more than explains why I still am supporting Hillary. The emphasis added is mine…
But Hillary’s campaign is still going for every woman who has spoken up in a meeting and was greeted with silence only to have a man say the same thing and be praised. It endures for the mothers who are taking care of their children and their parents and their home and has no time to take care of herself. It endures for women who are so scared to see her fail because of what it may say about their chances in life. And yes folks, it resonates for all the women who have seen the younger guy come along and get the promotion even though she has worked in the company loyally for years.
I can more than identify.
Might as well gather the shit storm I started in one place. My original comment from GR. But with spelling fixes because I have fat typing fingers.
And my follow up on FF
I do wish there was a centralized open commenting system similar to the OpenID credentials system.
Might as well keep digging. If the situation was reversed (Hillary barely ahead but essentially out of the race by nearly every count possible, Obama holding on anyway) it would be possible (although still wrong) for Obama supporters to use the same sorts of arguments the other way around. That the black man is greeted with silence. That the promotion goes to someone white. That Obama failing says something about an African American’s chances in life. And I would also think that is dead wrong.
The fact that out of such a strong field of candidates the two remaining are a black man and a woman should give hope to EVERYONE regardless of who comes out on top. To say otherwise, to say that one should stay in when it is all but decided because of reasons such as the ones said by Ms Rosen, really seem to me to underestimate the impact of Senators Clinton and Obama being in such a close battle for the nomination of one of the two major political parties in this country.
Or maybe I just am a misogynist.
(completely unrelated side note, when I try to preview my comment I get the following error: “Publish error in template ‘Comment Preview Template’: Error in tag: Error in tag: The MTCommentFields tag is no longer available; please include the Comment Form template module instead.” Just a heads up)
Jason’s original comment from Google Reader:
“Basrely under 50% of the Democratic primary vote is “greeted with silence”? Hillary losing says that women have fewer chances in *life*? This whole paragraph seems to me to be a backhanded way of saying “If you don’t support Hillary then you want women to fail and be second class” Maybe, just maybe, I support Obama because I like his message, his politics and his style of running for office better than Hillary’s. Maybe.. and this might be a stretch… maybe MOST of the people who voted for Obama actually like his policies/message/style better and aren’t really misogynists. As for the last sentence, that just screams “I’ve been here longer so I deserve it” which isn’t exactly what our system of government is based on.”
First –
Spelling errors aside, this is quite a bit more volatile than the comment he posted above. It’s pretty clearly a sarcastic, biting comment, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t intend for me to read it, given where he posted it. If he had intended me to read it, he would have said it here.
Second –
I certainly never said any of those things had actually happened to Hillary Clinton.
I said that the paragraph had resonance because the emphasized items HAVE HAPPENED TO ME. That’s pretty obvious. I have had ideas greeted with silence, and then repeated by men in meetings with enthusiastic responses. I’ve seen younger guys come along and get promotions when I’ve worked harder, longer, and smarter than everyone else.
There are some aspects of the treatment Hillary has received during her presidential campaign that remind me of those things happening to me. I count the years since women won the right to vote, and I see 44 male presidents in a row and wonder if women will ever, ever get there, and if I’ll ever see a difference in the way I’m treated in my lifetime.
I never stated that Hillary has been greeted with silence, or that she deserves the presidency “because she’s been here longer.” It’s pretty obvious that Jason is interpreting this paragraph in a way that suits his world view, and not in the way it was intended as written, or in the way I intended when I quoted it.
I didn’t address any of the rest of Rosen’s article — just this one paragraph. So Jason’s can make his critique of the rest of the article over on the Huffington Post.
Notice that I said this paragraph was an example of why I was still supporting Hillary — not that I was opposing Obama. I really do like Obama. I just don’t think he has enough experience, among other things.
Third –
I actually do believe that MOST of the people who voted for Obama actually like his policies/message/style better and aren’t really misogynists.
But I DON’T believe that about Jason. Based on Jason’s pro-Obama and anti-Hillary and anti-feminist screeds over the last several months, it’s my opinion that Jason is a misogynist douche. That’s my opinion, and I’m entitled to it.