It seems like only yesterday that Kirsten Gillibrand was catapulted onto the national stage, and already Politico gossip-mongers Patrick O'Connor and Glenn Thrush want you to know that the woman is one ambitious bitch!
Never mind her positions and accomplishments, the men want you to know that she's not likable enough:
“Nobody really likes her,” sniped one New York City-area member, speaking on condition of anonymity.
O'Connor and Thrush gush:
Within the high school gossip circle that is New York’s congressional delegation, Kirsten Gillibrand’s nickname is “Tracy Flick” — a not-so-flattering reference to the over-eager, blonde, bubbly and viciously competitive Reese Witherspoon character from “Election.”
Gillibrand, the newly-appointed junior senator from New York, has never been shy about her political ambitions — or her willingness to vault over older, more experienced politicians.
Yeah, do tell us all about that "high school gossip circle," Patrick and Glenn. Inquiring minds at Politico want to know.
Let's see now, women who have been criticized and ridiculed for the exact same ambition that wins respect and admiration for men include my mother and her mother and the many foolish ambitious women who ran for president with no chance in hell of ever winning. Ambitious women throughout the ages who have been jeered and ridiculed for their dreams include Matilda Gage and Emma Goldman and Victoria Woodhull and Belva Lockwood and Susanna Salter and Mary Wollstonecraft and Alice Paul and my daughters and all the women we've never heard of because the ridicule and jeers and assorted beatings are just so damned effective at keeping us in our patriarchal place.
The internet is saturated with Tracy Flick videos and stories and photos that ridicule Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin for the gendered crime of ambition. The most famous and popular of them -- Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick -- was created by the proud He-men over at Slate.
Are Patrick and Glenn already hard at work on a Tracey Flick video that will capture the blonde Kirsten Gillibrand's pathological drive for power? Or are the sexist gossip-mongers content to merely put the word out? After all, they know full well that once they're done prattling, the gossip circle of Politico readers will go forth and saturate the internet with stories, videos and photos ridiculing Kirsten Gillibrand as an "over-eager, blonde, bubbly and viciously competitive" bitch.
Move over Hillary and Sarah.
Feminist Politics Gender News Hillary Clinton Sarah Palin Kirsten Gillibrand New York Caroline Kennedy Tracy Flick Women's History
