aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Monday, February 04, 2008
Goodbye to the double standard
When I was talking racism recently to a white male friend, he responded, “but sexism is everywhere.”
He’s backing Obama. I’m backing Hillary. And now I see how much sexism is here.
Robin Morgan wrote a compelling piece that Hilary Rosen shared on Huffington Post. The whole piece really must be read. It begins:
“Goodbye To All That” was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting women (for an online version, see the Fair Use blog).
During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and contemporary women’s movements, I’ve avoided writing another specific “Goodbye . . .”. But not since the suffrage struggle have two communities--the joint conscience-keepers of this country--been so set in competition, as the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls. So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .
--Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who’s emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.
--She’s “ambitious” but he shows “fire in the belly.” (Ever had labor pains? )
--When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.
--Young political Kennedys--Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr.--all endorsed Hillary. Sen. Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort “See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him.” (Personally, I’m unimpressed with Caroline’s longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein’s disgust at Hillary’s “thick ankles.” Nixon-trickster Roger Stone’s new Hillary-hating 527 group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (check the capital letters). John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?” with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC 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. Shame.
Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan “If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!” Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central’s “Southpark” featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC’s vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage--as citizens, voters, Americans? [READ ON]
THE NEXT DAY - Emily Bazelon’s reporting that an email version of the Morgan piece is being forwarded with an added note from Chelsea Clinton:
“...please forward this to all the men you know too--voting in the election tomorrow, voting next week, already voted. I don’t agree with all the points Robin Morgan makes but I do believe her thesis is important for us all to confront--I confess that I didn’t entirely get ‘it’ until not only guy stood up and shouted ‘iron my shirts’ but the media reacted with amusement, not outrage...”
Says Bazelon, “it’s more than I think I’ve ever heard straight from Chelsea. If this is her writing, she seems pretty astute.”
I expect she is. Very astute. If Hillary loses I’ll be watching to see if Chelsea picks up the torch.
