Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumYup, pretty much debunks the whole "voting with your vajajay" fallacy
But to ride women's discontent into the Oval Office, of course, Clinton has to win the Democratic nomination. And while she has maintained a strong advantage with women voters overall, she's not doing well with all women. White millennial women favor Bernie Sanders.
Perhaps that's because the best rationale for Clinton's candidacy hasn't been effectively communicated to millennial women. There is a powerful case to be made for electing a woman president, and it has nothing to do with the straw man of identity politics.
The most compelling reason women should vote for Hillary Clinton? Pure self-interest.
[A] model ... predicts that Democratic and Republican women will offer three times more feminist bills than their male counterparts will. The global scholarship leaves no doubt: Women in political office make it a priority to advance rights, equality and opportunity for women and girls, in a way and to a degree that men in power overwhelmingly do not.
[link:http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-cohen-why-women-should-elect-women-20160406-story.html|
OhZone
(3,212 posts)artyteacher
(598 posts)dlwickham
(3,316 posts)SaschaHM
(2,897 posts)one of the reasons that I'm voting for Clinton is the premise that she could/would offer more for women than any of her male counterparts. Plus, it is well beyond the time for us to have a female commander-in-chief.
Treant
(1,968 posts)I'm voting for her because of experience, extremely liberal views on most social issues, and just 'cause I like her.
zixiofix
(40 posts)It's never a bad thing to vote for a candidate because of experience. Love that you vote for her with or without a V.
zixiofix
(40 posts)In general, I find it shocking that so few women fully understand the most basic tenet of feminism -- which is that the personal is always political. That so many women wear it as a badge of honor to announce they are NOT voting for Hillary because she's a woman. What other voting block does that? No seriously. I find it so effing bizarre. What voting block willfully and proudly declares--"oh wait, let me reassure you, I'm definitely not voting for the person most likely to assure my interests are taken into consideration." With any other group this would be just insane, but with women, we think it's cool.
To me, that shows just how deeply oppressed women are in this country--because if they are not willfully participating in their own oppression, they are at the very least doing nothing actively to stop it. As Jessica Valenti recently wrote: "Only in a sexist society would women be told that caring about representation at the highest levels of government is wrong. Only in a sexist society would women believe it."
ismnotwasm
(42,014 posts)The sudden dearth of feminist discussion at DU and other on-line places has been one of the saddest casualties of this primary cycle, which to me proves your point.
It would seem, that's it's difficult to support Senator Sanders and yet acknowledge the enormous sexism Hillary Clinton faces. Indeed, sexism of any kind is vehemently denied. With glee.
I love that last quote, and would add this, "one cannot choose not to be oppressed when one is born oppressed"
I don't understand how the same people who acknowledge that sexism is alive and well can turn around and say that none of it is being used against Hillary. The sexism that is so deeply ingrained in our society just magically disappears when it comes to Hillary Clinton? How do they explain that?
Liberal men and women can be just as sexist as right-wingers. It's more insidious, in fact, because they refuse to recognize it for what it is.
zixiofix
(40 posts)exactly. it's ironic that feminism is almost a dirty word when we have a very strong likelihood of nominating the first woman candidate for president for a major american political party. then we have progressives supporting Bernie who call themselves "feminists for bernie" . love the irony again -- you know, women and men claiming to be feminists trying to convince themselves and others that voting for the status quo and keeping the glass ceiling intact is a "feminist" action. bwhahaha!
sarae
(3,284 posts)"feminists for Hillary"? I was wondering, but then I realized it would probably be redundant to say that it's a given.
zixiofix
(40 posts)It should be redundant, but the reality is that it's not.
I'm always amazed to hear women bragging about how much they hate Hillary. It's even more disturbing to see them getting praised for it by their male counterparts, who often go on to use a variety of sexist/ageist slurs to describe Hillary and/or her supporters. It's depressing and just makes me realize that we still have a long, long way to go...
zixiofix
(40 posts)well I guess that was the whole scandal with Steinem claiming that some of these women were just Bernie supporters to find men. Kinda like the equivalent of women who went to the university in the old days to find a husband. Steinem's claim was sexist, but nonetheless true. There will always be a certain class of men who praise women for being like men (watching football for example) or caring about what men care about (Sanders or substitute "policy over gender" when doing so either implicitly traumatizes the woman or the group they belong to. Women are kept out of football and relegated to the sidelines as cheerleaders, but many women take pride in loving a sport that bars them from participating. And likewise there is always a woman that internalizes their oppression to such a degree that they no longer realize they are actually harming a group through the personal choices they make, not just themselves. When women do not vote monolithically, our entire group suffers.
In African American culture, there is a word for a "house n*gro" who collaborates with the master. They are always referred to as an Uncle Tom. An Uncle Tom is someone whose individual choices work to make dominance and hegemony of the master more palatable to the oppressed. And they are always, always seen for what they are and always called out for their treachery by the whole community.
When a woman act's like an Uncle Tom, we're not allowed to call her out for it and instead we're upbraided for denying another woman her right to "choose." Or for denying that there are multiple "feminisms", not just feminism.
It is . . .to use a word, completely and utterly absurd.
This stuff makes me so angry. To be fair, I have seen some female Bernie supporters who don't stoop to Hillary-bashing (and actually call it out), but I've seen far too many who do. It's really easy to find examples of it just looking through twitter and comments online and it makes me sick to my stomach.
We need a word for the sexist version of an Uncle Tom; call it what it is. It makes it all so much worse when they deny their sexism. Some of them protest so much that it's obvious they have some internal knowledge of what they're doing, on some level. And then they turn around and project their guilt by calling Hillary supporters "fake feminists" and such.
I'm so glad I found this group because I felt lost in a sea of Bernie Bros online, and I think it was seriously starting to affect my health (how long can you maintain a through-the-roof blood pressure? lol)...so thank you for saving my sanity!!
LisaM
(27,839 posts)If women insist it's more feminist to vote for a male candidate over a female one who has avtrack revord of working for women's issues, then their male counterparts can shed any sexist guilt they might have.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)As Jessica Valenti recently wrote: "Only in a sexist society would women be told that caring about representation at the highest levels of government is wrong. Only in a sexist society would women believe it."
Right on. Shows that we have a long way to go.
DemonGoddess
(4,640 posts)zixiofix
(40 posts)I'm new here, so I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say thanks for a K&R, but here it is anyway: THANKS!
don't think anyone would object, but if it's a problem, Cha or one of the other group hosts will tell us.
Her Sister
(6,444 posts)Women and children! She's always found a way to get back to that! There's something very special in that!
zixiofix
(40 posts)because they are the two groups who are the most vulnerable.
Kath1
(4,309 posts)But I'm sure my vajajay will approve!