This post is a response to the following comment left here on TGW by Angela Sparrow:
I should know better than to get between a True Believer and her Kool-aid, but here goes nothing.
Egalia, I find most of the time your blog is spot-on.
However, Pandagon did an expose on the origins of the PUMAs: PUMAs are Swiftboats.
I understand many women are feeling rightfully disappointed that Sen. Clinton did not get the nomination. The country may be ready for a female president. But not Clinton. The first female president will have to be a woman who isn't seen as a carpetbagging kingmaker stepping into her appointed position. (and that's the kindest of the complaints I've heard)
Angelia Sparrow
That was no exposé. That was a total misrepresentation of PUMA, which some of us discussed in the comments here several days ago. I respect Amanda, but PUMA is larger and far more complex than her quick little blog post conveyed, but it served Amanda’s purpose. My critique is more lengthy than I have time for at the moment. I’ll try to post it later. But see a brief response in this post at Riverdaughter's.
As to the assertion that Hillary Rodham Clinton merely rode to the position of viable presidential candidate on Bill's coattails, this is just another way of saying that married women should stay in their wifely roles. Why not just save time and hurl this anti feminist insult at her by calling her Billary?
Like the vast majority of women in this man’s world, when Hillary Rodham married Bill Clinton, she put her husband’s career ahead of her own. She even moved to Arkansas, for gawd's sake, not exactly the Mecca for women who have careers. Hillary Rodham Clinton has long been recognized as more brilliant than Bill. When they moved to Washington, she was earning more money than Bill. She was one of the top 100 attorneys in the nation. Many said at the time that Hillary was more qualified to be president than Bill, except for the fact that Hillary is a woman.
The assertion that Hillary Rodham Clinton is merely riding Bill’s coattails is just more of the same old blaming women for being women in a society that celebrates all things male and denigrates all things female.
Women do not get into positions of power without the aid of men in this man’s world, and neither do men. Men trade on the connections they make in fraternities, golf clubs, and strip clubs. And people want to criticize women for trading on the connections that are available to us? In the entire history of this patriarchal nation, a mere 2 percent of all Congress-members have been women. If we eliminate all the women who became Congresswomen because of their connections to husbands, that embarrassingly pitiful percentage declines considerably.
The fact is if Hillary Rodham Clinton had not been married to the former president, she would not have stood a chance at the presidency, but that is a statement about the bias against women in this culture, Not a statement about her qualifications for the job. It is also a fact that if Barack Obama was 100 percent Black and a descendant of slaves raised in Harlem, instead of the son of a Kenyan economist and a white woman and raised in Hawaii, he also would not stand a chance at the presidency. Again, it is not about his qualifications for the job, but about the shameful cultural biases.
It is also true that there are very few men whose egos could survive being married to the Commander-in-Chief. Most women certainly do consider and nourish the egos of husbands. That pesky problem alone eliminates a large number of women from the small field of qualified women who are actually interested in the job of Commander-in-Chief.
In other words Angela, if we accept the preconditions you set for "the first female president," we will be waiting forever.
Would Bill Clinton have risen to the position of leader of the free world without Hillary Rodham Clinton's support and aid? Not likely. In fact, I seriously doubt he would have risen to the position of Governor of Arkansas. It is no accident that there are precious few single men who rise to positions of power in the male-centered politics of this sorry nation.
Feminist Politics News Gender Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Democratic Primary Feminist Trailblazer Sexism
