Hillary, The Classical Wise Woman or Priestess

Quote of the Day

"[Hillary Rodham Clinton] is funny, hilarious, generous, warm, given to acts of kindness that are extraordinary. She is a deep woman, not just a very bright woman. But she is part of a dying breed, an archaic sensibility. . [She] is the classical wise woman or priestess, if you will."

-- Jean Houston,
scholar, philosopher, author

I found the above quotation in a post about Hillary over at Women's Space, where Heart writes:

I read an interesting article last night written by a newspaper reporter in Oregon. He had interviewed an old friend of Hillary Clinton, Jean Houston, following Clinton’s campaign appearance in Eugene. Clinton had sought out Houston along with Mary Catherine Bateson for support and counsel during crises around Bill Clinton’s presidency, the failure of her own health care initiative in 1994 and her ongoing intense vilification by the media.

This especially caught my eye:

The biggest change in human history over the last 5,000 years, Houston said, “is the rise of the feminine . . . slowly, but surely, to full partnership with men over the whole domain of human affairs. This is shifting everything.” This was what Houston and Bateson tried to convey to Clinton in 1995 when they helped her understand why, quite apart from political strife, she was the object of so much loathing.

”It’s the fear of the ‘rising feminine,’ ” Houston said.

Heart adds:

I think she has been made to be the focus of, and to bear up under, free-floating misogynist, sexist resentments and fears of decades and even centuries. The way she has been imagined and treated in this campaign does not bode well, not only for Clinton’s candidacy but for feminism, for the lives of girls and women everywhere. . . . read more

Misogyny Politics Sexist News Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Democratic Party Gender Jean Houston Women's History Feminist Backlash