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January 10, 2008
Isn't it ironic?
Posted by: Chris
The woman whose question left Hillary Clinton choked up and tearful ended up voting for Barack Obama. So much for the conspiracy theory that Marianne Pernold Young was some sort of Clinton campaign plant. (Or if she was, they are supremely devious in their execution -- no, I don't believe that for a heartbeat.)
It seems Young, 64, the freelance photographer who asked the question, had the same reaction I did to Clinton's response: She was initially moved and sympathetic, and then turned off when Clinton turned her answer into an attack on Barack Obama. Query whether most voters moved by "the tears" saw enough of the answer to gauge it in context.
From her front row view of Mrs Clinton's moment of emotion, [Young] had been distinctly unimpressed by the way that the former First Lady had gone straight back into politician mode after giving her answer.
"I took a walk on the beach and all I thought was how Obama made me feel and I thought about Hillary's response to me, and I thought she was a soft feminine woman for seven seconds," she said.
"When she turned, she adapted this political posture again, the stiffness and the rhetoric, and I said I really want to vote for Obama."
Meanwhile on the lesbian-feminist blog Shakespeare's Sister, Melissa McEwan insists, "When a woman … talks about Hillary's femaleness as a potentially deciding factor in whether to support her, it has nothing to do with 'Vagina Voting,'" which she goes on to describe as the "profoundly misogynist" idea that "women will want to vote for Hillary just because she's a woman."
I feel distinctly unqualified (and mildly afraid) to comment.
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Comments
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Care to share why you feel unqualified and afraid?
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To RR: A comment from Rudy Rodriguez will always put a big ole grin on my face, so thanks for that. Speaking of ironies, here I am writing all these nice things about Democrats and apparently you're out supporting the one who gives me the willies. When will we ever get our act together?
To Lucrece: Well... If a very angry feminist defends women who vote for Hillary because "her femaleness is the deciding factor" and yet calls it "profoundly mysoginistic" for anyone to suggest they're doing so "just because she's a woman," then (a) the bread is being sliced way too thin for me to offer my own spread, and (b) since I neither have a vagina nor have any familiarity with them, I'll pretty much take her word for it.
What was most telling to me from the post, actually, was that McEwan was so offended by those who criticize women for backing Hillary because she's a woman because she claims what they're really saying is that those women support only because she's a woman. The only thing sillier than that supposed accusation about Hillary's female supporters is McEwan's accusation that their critics are actually suggesting such.
Now, hopefully, you see why I didn't want to wade in here...
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You don't need to have a vagina to be a feminist individual; I think you know that. As long as you're somehow familiar with the topic at hand and its treatment under the lens of feminist criticism, you should be fine.
I also don't see what's the difference between objecting to an angry feminist's remarks to the angry remarks of any other individual following some other philosophy.
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I also don't see what's the difference between objecting to an angry feminist's remarks to the angry remarks of any other individual following some other philosophy.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Rudy Rodriguez on Jan 10, 2008 6:31:51 PM:
Too bad she inadvertently ended up creating the moment that so many have credited with tipping the balance in favor of Hillary.