I come not to praise Hillary Clinton but to call a pig a pig

I'm a lesbian, a feminist, and I was a women's studies major at UC Berkeley in the 80s, and I really can't stand Hillary Clinton.

This has nothing to do with Barack Obama; before I supported him, I supported John Edwards and oh yeah, I couldn't stand Hillary Clinton.

And I'm getting fed up with two things:

• The constant refrain that everyone who can't stand Hillary Clinton is a sexist and/or dislikes her because she's a woman;
• The constant use of sexist, even misogynistic, language to denigrate Hillary Clinton.

Don't get me wrong. I really really dislike her. This isn't an attack disguised as tepid praise. There is no praise. This has nothing to do with her.

It's you guys. The testosterone-poisoned ones on the boy blogs. Yeah, you. I knew there was a reason I yanked your blogs off my blogroll after the 2004 election, and it's because you can really be fucking pigs.

The thing is, you were fucking pigs before Hillary Clinton ran for president, and you'll probably continue to be fucking pigs when her campaign is over. So I'll call you on it now, and I'll call you on it then. Knock it off. It's unprogressive, it's offensive, and it's juvenile.

As for the other side of the equation, if you don't respect the fact that I have legitimate reasons to dislike someone unrelated to her gender -- a gender that actually would normally predispose me to like someone more, not less, see "lesbian, feminist, former women's studies major," kthnx -- then you have no respect for me, my judgment, my ethical center, or my mind.

Hillary Clinton has earned my enmity fair and square. She earned it with her sense of entitlement, with her W-esque defensiveness when challenged or contradicted, and with her badly-run campaign. On a political level, she's the product of the DLC-driven, Republican-lite, pro-corporate, "I'll beat you at your own game" arm of the Democratic Party, which is the whole  reason  I spent most of my adult years checking "decline to state" on my voter registration. The Democrats have mostly been too conservative, too beholden to big business, for me.

But the boys who call her "Hillary" while always, always calling Obama "Obama"? The ones who get all wide-eyed and defend calling her "bitch" and insisting it's not a sexist use of the word? The endless, pervasive confounding of her with former President Clinton, as though they're joined not at the hip but at the cerebral cortex, because heaven knows a little wife can't have a thought of her own? And at the even uglier crap I try to forget because it just makes me too angry to even write coherently?

Stop. Just stop.

Can you really not find enough reasons to oppose her candidacy without dipping into the seething vat of misogyny? That's really, truly pathetic.

Comments

[Travis]

I can't speak to the specific people you're talking about, because I don't know them, and honestly, you're the only political blog I read. Politics makes me crazy, and I'm not really interested in being crazy after the age of 40. ;)

I've been wondering about my own use of Hillary Clinton's first name, as compared with my use of Barack Obama's last name, and I'm not so sure it's sexist, although I'm open to having my understanding of my motives changed, if necessary.

I think with the proximity of Bill Clinton's past-presidency, it's probably a distinction that is being made between the two of them. What's more, it probably SHOULD be made from both a political point of view (she needed to distance herself from her husband's presidency and run as her own candidate not an extension of her husband) and a marketing point of view (after all, how many huge and successful popstars are just known by one name? Many). Calling her Hillary is an expedient way to accomplish both of those goals. An argument against this, of course, is that we still called George W. Bush by his last name when he ran, and his father's presidency wasn't very any farther in the past than Bill Clinton's. But then again, his father had the same first name. So calling him George would have defeated the purpose. I know that many people called him "W" (when they were being nice), and if I recall, there were even some official bumper stickers that capitalized on that appellation. So, that may be in favor of my argument.

Anywhosy, as to the rest of it, I have no opinion. :)

Travis

[Red]

I find that I do that as well: call Sen Clinton Hillary and Sen Obama by his last name. I find myself calling him Barack more often now, though.

I was rather taken aback at Elton John's assessment that people were "misogynistic" where Hillary is concerned. While this is in part true, I didn't like being lumped into that category. I live for the day that we have a female president. Why am I wrong for not wanting Hillary to be that woman? Conversely, why am I somehow wrong for not voting for her because she's a woman?

I find myself in that most unique of political stats: being a black woman. Look at my choices. Choosing one over the other is to diss the one not chosen, by way of gender or race, or so goes the school of thought. Can't win for losing.

[Anon]

Those sexist attacks against Hillary came from women, too. I call them self-loathing women, but some were just cheap shots, I'm sure.

I call her Hillary because 'Barnacle Bill' as I call him, is an image I try to keep out of my mind as much as possible.