Y’all beat me to it. I was working my way through it trying to decide what to cite. I think this also illustrates my point. Hillary appears to “lie” no more or less often than any other politician male or female. Yet she gets the hateful shit. Also I didn’t get a cite for how she’s “cruel” to anyone who gets in her way.
I haven’t seen anything that convinces me that Hillary Clinton is not held to a different standard compared to all other politicians and especially males. I really think that there isn’t anything she could do to convince people that she isn’t some “cackling” demon.
Here’s an oddball thought, prompted by reviewing BREAKING BAD the past few days: the irrational hatred of HRC (as opposed to the rational dislike of her policies) reminds me of the grief that Anna Gunn got for her portrayal of Skyler White. I’m not even sure the actress and the character diverge as sharply as I just implied. Gunn/White got the same type of response that HRC got: she was bitchy, she was bossy, she took advantage of her husband’s competence, when in reality (looked at from a certain angle) she was just a brave independent woman making the best of a bad hand she was dealt (in her marriage) and striving to play along with the big boys, who constantly minimized her abilities. Again, I’m talking about the out-and-out hatred this actress/character got, out of all proportion to her actions.
That’s a pretty good example. A lot of Hillary’s grief was caused by Bill, after all. That the hatred extended to the real life actress was just disgusting. Fan boys are the worst, and politics is similar that way.
Still, I don’t think misogyny is enough of a barrier to prevent a woman being elected to the White House. We can ask President Whitmer about it in 2025.
The Repubs dislike of Bill was pretty par for the course for their dislike of any Democrat who is, successful, and likable, despite Bill’s behavior. Their seething hatred of Hillary is a whole 'nother animal. I can’t make some of the people here or in the wild recognize the blatant misogyny aimed at Hillary Clinton, but I see it clearly.
To me saying it was because of Bill, is another form of tacit sexism. She earned their hatred for having a vagina, a keen intellect, an opinion, and power. These are unforgivable traits in a woman in D.C.
I guess short of reading the whole thing over again, I can’t argue with you. I think there was a bit of “explaining” how it wasn’t so much misogyny as this or that. However, I’m too tired, lazy, whatever to go through the whole thing again, and my memory isn’t tip top. Maybe I should get some of that prevagen junk.
However, my memory is good enough to remember the post I just replied to above. That seemed to be an “explanation” of why they hate her. It was because of her Husband, of course.
Suppose the Clintons settled in NY after college and Bill pursued a career outside of politics. Meanwhile, Hillary entered politics, won a House seat, then a Senate seat, and then ran for president. Would the level of hatred directed at her been as intense? I doubt it. Of course plain old misogyny was a factor, but there were many others as well.
Look at the kind of vitriol (and violence!) that Democratic women like Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes inspire. Their careers aren’t linked to a politically successful spouse.
If you argue that it’s because they are “super-leftist” or whatever, note that Pelosi is not on the extreme left compared to her male Democratic counterparts.
I truly don’t know, nor can I give an informed opinion on a ‘what if’. Maybe not, but maybe so. She was one of the first very outspoken, powerful women on the D.C. scene. She certainly wasn’t the only one, but I’ve never seen as much hatred aimed at a person for hazy, undefined reasons. Maybe Pelosi? At least they have some lame political justification of sorts for hating Nancy.
I guess what I would say that Bill’s position gave her a bit of a springboard, but I don’t think that explains the virulence of the hatred by the pubs, and the spread of vague, “I don’t know I just don’t like her”.
Eh, Cpap issues are making my brain mushy (more than usual) that wandering, stream of consciousness is the best I can do today.
Given their silence on conservative and Republican women in positions of power the misogyny is just a side dish on the giant ‘we hate liberals and Democrats’ plate.
Not that there aren’t folks that do have a problem with any woman holding a position of power.
Because, of course, many Republican women politicians also used their spouses’ careers as a springboard for their own, but that doesn’t draw so much vitriol.