“Nixon in a pantsuit” my foot
Could Nixon have pulled off this shade of red?
Blegghh. That goddamn James Wolcott piece keeps popping up on blogs and listservs, and every time I encounter it the bile rises in my throat. Hitherto I have refrained from unloading said bile here on the blog, but why the hell not? That’s what blogs are for.
Anyway, here’s the Wolcott piece — When Democrats Go Post-al — and here, for blogular posterity, is my reaction to it:
I know Wolcott is a Hillary supporter. I’m glad he hasn’t drunk the Obamabot koolaid, and I’m glad he’s giving attention to the pro-Hillary blogosphere.
But the article is disappointing, even infuriating. Wolcott makes the same sexist mistakes so many men (and young women) are making in this race.
First of all, he accepts the conventional wisdom that Hillary is fundamentally uncharismatic. He repeats uncritically the “Nixon in a pantsuit” meme started by Andrew Sullivan, a meme that is predicated on the assumption that a mature woman cannot possibly be inspiring to anyone, no matter how brilliant and powerful and courageous she is. No, instead she’s Nixon, who to my generation is Exhibit A in the gallery of grim power-grubbing politicians (Bobby Kennedy said he represented “the dark side of the American character”).
Secondly, he dismisses the role sexism is playing in the current divide between Democrats — the divide his article is supposed to explain. Notice that after quoting Alegre’s frustrated denunciation of the outrageous misogyny online, he says the whole contretemps sounds rather silly and what people are really upset about is Bush-Cheney. No. Wrong. What people are really upset about is exactly what Alegre said: the relentless misogynistic denigration of Hillary and her supporters.
Sexism is the story of this election year. The fact that so many otherwise intelligent people are utterly insensible to the problem is an indicator of how deeply rooted it still is.
7 Responses to ““Nixon in a pantsuit” my foot”
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Ann Bartow says:
Here is a short excerpt from this NYT article:
“Hillary Clinton didn’t attend the race, but she ordered her daughter to bet the filly. Eight Belles, who went off at 13-1, repaid the fans’ faith by returning $10.60 and $6.40.”
“Bet the filly!” That is utterly charming. If it hadn’t been for the heartbreaking fall and euthanasia of Eight Belles immediately after her 2nd place triumph, I’d have had tee shirts printed up with those words. Even as I remain an Obama supporter for reasons I will not go into here, I appreciate what Clinton’s run is doing for women.
May 4th, 2008 at 8:03 pm EST -
Roxie says:
Too bad about the Wolcott piece. You are so right that sexism is the story of this election year, though you sure wouldn’t know that from most of the press coverage. I hold forth on the trashing of Hillary and her supporters as well as on the sad death of Eight Belles in my latest post at Roxie’s World: On Good and Bad Analogies.
We’re still bettin’ the filly in this election, darn it! It ain’t over til somebody somehow gets to 2025 delegates.
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No Blood for Hubris says:
1. Sexism remains largely invisible, since it is the social norm.
2. Obama wears pantsuits. As do Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Limpbaugh, Wolcott . . .
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Paul Tergeist says:
I understand why feminists would want to vote for a testicular female….sort of…
But Is there no limit to how low her campaign will go to win that does not clue you that merely being female is not a guarantee of honesty?
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Violet says:
“how low her campaign will go”?
Her campaign hasn’t gone low at all. That’s one of the most infuriating lies coming out of this whole mess. Obama has run a dirty campaign from the start, all along feeding the press bullshit about how Hillary was taking the low road.
Hillary has run a consistently issue-based campaign.
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julia says:
Thank you, ‘No Blood’.
We are not fillies, birds, chicks, dogs, girls, or ‘guys’, goddamnit - we are women!
I went to hear John Trudell speak this weekend. He called Hillary a witch, a bitch and a reptile. The audience laughed and applauded. There were many women in the audience. The people like him are not mainstream. Nobody said anything. I thought I would throw up.
What did he call Obama? The Manchurian Candidate. And that’s it….even anti-imperialist John Trudell protects him. Even Michael Moore protects him.
The most ironic thing is that this was a benefit-tour to support health care for women and children. And he insulted every single woman in that audience. -
B. Dagger Lee says:
Andrew Sullivan has always been a big, enormous wind-blown shitbag.
