video via California NOW
San Francisco Chronicle: The documentary takes its title from a Jim Borgman cartoon showing Hillary Clinton pointing to a globe highlighted with countries that have been led by women, while a dim-looking Uncle Sam mutters, "What's your point, Honey?" In the movie, Steinem talks about the prescribed role that messes up adolescent girls and takes them years to get out from under. "The feminine role just descends on you at about 11 or 12, and you start to think you have to giggle and laugh and pretend you don't know what time it is."
Look at Hillary Clinton, says Cat Wilson, who supported Clinton in the primary but has high hopes for Barack Obama. "She not only had to prove she was smart enough and tough enough, but then she gets judged for not being emotional enough. She cried, and people said, 'Ah, she's such a woman.' " Imagine how a woman with George Bush's college grades and history of partying would be perceived if she ran for president, Wilson adds sardonically. "It's a double standard, and it's really unfair."
Clinton hadn't even announced her candidacy when this documentary was made. You can't watch it without thinking of her unsuccessful drive for the nomination. Her candidacy underscores the core messages of the film, Wilson says: "That there is still inequality" - women make up 51 percent of the American population but just 16 percent of Congress, the film points out - "and that there's hope."
White House Project Gender News Feminist Film Hillary Clinton Equal Representation Gloria Steinem Politics
