By Liz Mair on 11.9.07 @ 12:08AM
We've come a long way, Hillary.
Last week, Hillary Clinton's campaign blamed her poor debate
performance on sexism.
It was a maneuver that seemed suspiciously aimed at detracting
from Hillary's lackluster showing whilst simultaneously shoring up
her female support. But, ironically, it has had the opposite
effect. Rather than fostering a sense of solidarity between women
and the first credible female presidential candidate, Hillary's
cries of discrimination have left many women cold, and with good
reason. We've come a long way, baby -- and Team Hillary seems not
to have noticed.
Nor has the political pundit corps, or the bevy of outmoded
feminist leaders dredged up this week to discuss the merits of the
sexism claim. Virtually all see in the criticism and questioning
that Hillary garnered during the debate evidence of misogyny,
rather than typical candidate behavior and journalistic
professionalism. The initial reaction was that the men were indeed
"piling on" (and unfairly), Hillary is the poor embattled woman
trying to make it in the "all-boys club" of presidential politics,
and that Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro was right -- sexism
still is "okay" in America.
This is despite the fact that Hillary obviously attracted fire
in the debate because she commands a position of power and
dominance within the Democratic field, and not because she wears
different undergarments from the boys, and deigned to set foot on
their turf. She's the boss, not the victimized underling -- just
like many women in our respective fields today. Yet while women in
boardrooms, classrooms, court rooms, and operating rooms are
prepared to take criticism on the nose, just like any man would,
Team Hillary and her defenders in the media seem to want the old,
chivalric rule from an inequality-riven age to apply. You can't hit
a girl -- even though politics is a contact sport.
To many of us women that idea, and the suggestion that we should
rally around Hillary at the mere accusation of sexism, "sisters and
me" style, seems ludicrous. Worse, it is insulting. Sure, women
have often been characterized as simplistic, emotionally-driven
beings, but contrary to stereotype and what Team Hillary seems to
think, we're level-headed and logical enough to see when a
candidate is crying wolf. We're also smart enough to recognize that
Hillary is running for president, not auditioning for the Spice
Girls. A mere appeal to "Girl Power" isn't going to do it for us,
when we know that if Hillary wins the job, she's going to have to
face down the likes of Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad --
who are unlikely to go easy on her because she's a girl.
Of course, a glance at some polling might have suggested this to
Hillary in the first place. Sure, plenty of surveys conducted thus
far in this race show her garnering strong support from women, but
as Kellyanne Conway and Celinda Lake note in their book, What
Women Really Want, there is little statistical evidence to
show that women inherently prefer female candidates to male
candidates.
Moreover, recent polling suggests that Hillary's foray into
gender politics over the last week or so has been a net loser.
Whereas before the debate, several polls showed her hovering around
the 50 percent mark when it came to Democratic presidential primary
preferences, three polls conducted in the aftermath
(Newsweek, Rasmussen and CNN) showed her garnering
markedly less support. With only 2 million viewers having tuned
into the debate (and likely far fewer having paid close attention),
it's unlikely that Hillary's poor showing there is itself to blame.
Far more likely, the cries of "sexism" have damaged her standing
with voters, and especially high-powered women. As Ana Marie Cox of
Time noted this week, college-educated, middle-to-high
income-earning women are a weak supporter base for Hillary. It's
not a stretch to imagine that members of that group have been
particularly put off by her shift from tough, take-no-prisoners
feminist icon to the girl who can't take the heat, and blames the
boys and discriminatory attitudes to detract from her missteps.
Perhaps that is why, at the end of last week, Hillary tried to
walk back from the "sexism" assertion, saying that she doesn't
think her opponents piled on because she's a woman, but rather
because she's the frontrunner. Still, though, the sexism and
Hillary as "woman under siege" meme has not dissipated, especially
with her husband implying this week that she'd been "swift-boated"
-- an assertion that is likely to further irritate those already
frustrated by the employment of the gender card.
Such voters are many in the 21st century -- an era with which
Hillary seems not quite to have come to grips. Often seen as stuck
in the 1990s, with her interest in rehashing the Clinton-Bush
fights of fifteen years ago and idolizing of the Clinton years, her
campaign's actions this week showed her stuck in the days of gender
wars and bra-burning. The trouble for Hillary is, the rest of
society has moved on.
topics:
Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton, NATO
