I’ve been a Hillary girl all along. I have no problem telling anyone at anytime that I am proudly voting for the girl. Then again, I don’t work in an office with the boys breathing down my neck with this so-called Obama-mania. Rebecca Traister, one of my favorite writers who focuses on women’s issues in Salon, this week takes on the overzealous boycentric Obama mania here: Hey, Obama boys: Back off already!
Traister writes: I began reporting this story in part because, as a 32-year-old woman who is more liberal than either candidate, and who was quite torn until Super Tuesday, I had found myself increasingly defensive of Clinton in the face of the Obama worship that rules the mostly white, liberal, well-educated circles in which I work and travel.I am a loud feminist and a longtime Clinton skeptic who was suddenly feeling that I needed to rationalize, apologize for, or even just stay quiet about my increasing unease with the way Clinton was being discussed. Meanwhile, I was getting e-mails from men I didn’t know well who approached me as a go-to feminist to whom they could express their hatred of Hillary and their anger at her staying in the race — an anger that seemed to build with every one of her victories. One of my closest girlfriends, an Obama voter, told me of a drink she’d had with a politically progressive man who made a series of legitimate complaints about Clinton’s policies before adding that when he hears the senator’s voice, he’s overcome by an urge to punch her in the face.
Writing about women, Hollywood and feminism, I spend my time talking with women who work in the entertainment business. Many of them are struggling to get movies made and released that are about women and ALL are having a hard time. I have not talked to a single woman who has had someone, anyone say that they would looove to make her movie about a woman over 40 who… What they hear is there is no audience for these movies and women can’t be counted on to come and and see movies…yada yada yada.
During this long political season every single one of the women I have spoken to has brought up what is happening to Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail in comparison to what is happening for women in the entertainment business. While Hillary is clearly alone in doing what she’s doing, these women also feel alone in doing what they are doing.
As a Gen-X feminist, I’ve been upset at the internecine warfare between my feminist mothers and the third wavers. I’ve never seen the attraction to Obama, but understand the younger women’s desire to believe that we live in a world where voting beyond gender was a feminist act in itself in this supposedly post-feminist world.
But we don’t live in a post-feminist world. We live in a sexist world.
So this week I was happy to see that young women are FINALLY starting to realize that gender is an issue. Amanda Fortini who according to my google search has been a fashion writer at Slate and who recently wrote the Lindsay Lohan piece in NY Magazine where she appeared naked as Marilyn Monroe, takes a big step forward for herself with a terrific piece in this week’s NY Magazine entitled The Feminist Reawakening. She spoke to many young women who were sadly too fearful to use their names to discuss how gender in the presidential contest is playing out in workplaces and in conversations across the country.
Here are some really good quotes:
Many women, whatever their particular feelings about Hillary Clinton (love her, loathe her, voting for her regardless), began to feel a general sense of unease at what they were witnessing. The mask had been pulled off—or, perhaps more apt, the makeup wiped off—and the old gender wounds and scars and blemishes, rather than having healed in the past three decades, had, to the surprise of many of us, been festering all along.A few women told me that when they raised this issue with men, the discussion broke down, with the men arguing that racism was far more pernicious than sexism. “If you say anything about the specificity of Hillary being a woman, you’re just doing the knee-jerk feminist stuff, that’s the reaction,” said one woman who asked not to be identified in any way. “Thinking about race is a serious issue, whereas sexism is just something for dumb feminists to think about.”
I am proud to be one of those dumb feminists!
And some of the quotes that relate to Hollywood:
…many women were clued in to the numerous gender-related issues that lay, untouched and unexamined, at some subterranean level of our culture: to the way women disproportionately bear the ills of our society, like poverty and lack of health care; to the relentlessly sexist fixation on the bodies of Hollywood starlets—on the vicissitudes of their weight, on the appearance and speedy disappearance of their pregnant bellies—and the deleterious influence this obsession has on teenage girls.
A high-powered film executive for a company based in New York and Los Angeles recounted a heated debate she engaged in with two of her closest male friends; she finally capitulated when they teamed up and began to shout her down.
It’s just a vibe when you’re a woman and you walk into a room and you’re in a position of power and you have to convince them of something,” a movie producer told me. “You’re constantly juggling: When you’re soft, you’re too soft; when you’re strong, you’re too strong. It’s a struggle in business and a struggle in relationships. It’s always a struggle.”
What these pieces, the campaign, and my work shows is that we really, really don’t want to talk about or address gender issues. It’s easier just to ignore them. If nothing else comes from this feminist reawakening maybe, just maybe, those of us who think and write about gender won’t be called “dumb feminists” anymore. Maybe we’ll be called what we know we are already “kick-ass smart feminists.”
(BTW Traister’s article has garnered over 1100 comments in the two days since it was posted and Fortini’s only has 33. Guess most people read NY Magazine in print.)
Although I realize Hillary Clinton is not my ideal feminist candidate — far from it — I still want to see a woman in the White House. But my plan is to support either Democrat once they get into office.
Yup. What you said. You should check out Amy Tiemann’s article over at Women’s eNews on this same subject.
*Standing up*
*Applauding*
Thank you. Yes.
We don’t live in a post-feminist world . . . wish more people would wake up to that fact. Thanks for posting on this topic.
I love this piece and will send it around to my “folks.”
I’ll be a post feminist in a post patriarchy!
I totally disagree with the assumption that if we support Barack Obama we are sexist! I did support Hillary until I realized that there was no way she could get the delegate count by election. It is most important that we elect a Democrat this year who can change the dismal politics we have been subjected to under the current administration. Since I stopped supporting her I have grown increasingly disenchanted with her increasingly negative campaign (the 3 AM telephone call ad; the taking out of context and distortion of Barack’s comment about the difficulties facing blue collar workers in America — distracting us from dealing honestly with the real and important issues facing the country; her, to put it nicely, “fibbing” about coming under fire in Serbia, being instrumental in brokering the Irish peace deal — I could go on). In the meantime I have become more and more impressed with Barack Obama. He is honest, intelligent, is taking the high road through all the negativism. Not surprising if you read about his mother, who was far ahead of her (my!) time. I feel that Hillary is doing a disservice to the Democratic Party and to women in general by continuing her divisive and derisive campaign.
Dorothy Davis
New York, NY
From Melissa
I did not write that if you support Barack Obama that you are sexist. What I am trying to illuminate here is that people who are supporting Hillary are silent and ridiculed and have been made to feel bad for their support of her.
I’m tired of watching women having to stand aside for the guy just in order to keep the piece. When will a guy stand aside for a woman?
I will vote for whichever democrat wins the nomination.
Congratulations, he finally got his admittance to the Good Old Boys Club and he is well on the way to becoming one of them. The simple fact is that neither of them will have enough delegates without the support of the super delegates. So why the big push to force Clinton out? Simple, the boys club supports its own. If the roles were reverse, no one would dare to suggest Obama quit in fear of being called a racist. Yet, these same people are more than willing to put pressure on Clinton to bow out; after all she is just a woman-an uppity one at that. Good for her. I think us uppity women need to unite and let our voices be heard clear and strong.
Hillary lost my vote when she started to cry. Come on now, I want a strong leader not someone who is going to wilt under pressure. I like Hillary, I was happy during the Clinton era. But we are at a crossroads so rather instead of cannibalizing the Democratic party, it is time for the two candidates to come together and form a ticket – I really don’t care who’s on the top or bottom (if I may gay up the political process). At this point, I think Clinton should negotiate, swallow her pride an take the #2 slot because staying in the race is now more about her ego. Is taking the Veep slot a blow to feminism? Hells no.It demonstrates that the Democratic party is strong and committed to much need change in this country.
It is a misconception in Hollywood that 20-something males have the largest share of consumer power. People over 50 do, and especially women over 50 – but the movie industry is dominated by men who want to appeal to men and so they perpetuate this notion. Women over 40 do go to the movies — they just don’t go to dick movies.
Regarding the election, I want Hillary to get the nomination. I support her and am proud of it, and I feel it is NECESSARY and URGENT for her to win. Every candidate has flaws (they are human, after all) but she is a GOOD candidate, a VIABLE option, and it is vitally important that when we have an opportunity to elect a woman to the White House who is a good candidate, we absolutely NEED TO do it not only because she can run this country well but because having a woman President will encourage more young women to go into politics.
We as women need to ensure that every presidential election has a woman candidate, until gender is no longer an issue. We make up over half the U.S. population and still are severely under-represented in all political offices across the country. According to the National Plan of Action: Then and Now, which was compiled in late 2007 and can be read online at abzuginstitute.org, currently just 16.3 percent of Congress is female, and only 76 women hold statewide elective executive offices across the country out of the 315 available positions– that’s 24.1 percent. Of those 76 women only 5.3 percent are women of color. As of September 2007, only one-tenth of the 100 largest cities in the U.S. had women mayors. Only 30 out of 245 mayors (12.2 percent) of U.S. cities with populations over 100,000 are women, and just 185 out of 1,145 mayors (16.2 percent) of U.S. cities with populations over 30,000 are women. Women today hold only 23.5 percent of available seats in state legislature. Women of color hold just 4.7 percent of the total 7,382 state legislators. Only two women have ever served on the Supreme Court. As for judgeships, according to the Spring 2007 issue of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, women hold approximately 22 percent of federal judgeships and 28 percent of state court judgeships. To anyone who thinks that electing a woman president is not important — think again.
PS to “goddess perlman”: Hillary’s eyes becoming moist does not mean she cried. She did not cry. But if a male candidate cried, you can be sure he would be praised for his sensitivity.