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Enough About Us. What About Them?
At the risk of offering yet another gender-based generalization, I'll wager that most women are ultimately pragmatic. And that for as many of us who define ourselves by the cut of our pocketbook, a lot more will vote what's in it. Sure we get a little tipsy at the symbolic value of seating the first woman president. But most of us will not cast a vote for that reason alone. As some of the newest wave of feminists keep reminding us, issues of class and race are as important to most women as gender is to the feminists that came before. The women who voted last Tuesday may have been saying less about themselves as women as they were telling us about themselves as voters.
I've loved every minute of the great big gender intervention we women have staged these past weeks—the frank discussions about public tears, brutish husbands and whether it's sexist or respectful to be asked to speak first. It's all been a long time coming, and it's focused the mind, and the women's movement, in all sorts of important ways.
But health reform and civil liberties and the Supreme Court and the war in Iraq and the economy are pragmatic problems, not symbolic ones. All this talk about women and America has been most illuminating, and I am now ready for it to be over. Hey, candidates? Enough about us, let's talk about you. And what you can do for us.
Dahlia Lithwick is a writer for Slate and Newsweek.
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: powin @ 05/13/2008 4:17:40 PM
Comment: Mr. Alter,
The media's clarion call that it's done with a statistical dead heat between the three prospective contenders for the White House, seems too early to toss FL and MI voters out to sea. CA, FL, MI, PA, OH, MA, NY are a must........and, although I LIKE Obama, he hasn't won the most critical blue states...That's one robust reason to continue this democratic process.
Despite MILLIONS of supporters, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been vehemently vilified because it remains socially acceptable to be sexist. Corporate men dominate the airwaves; these men have held the keys to success, and invariably, they oversee most election coverage (Philadelphia Inquirer).
"Media news people, frequently operating with complete integrity and goodwill, are able to [CONVINCE} themselves that they choose and interpret the news "objectively" and on the basis of professional news values....[Not in this scenario, however.] Voter attention is focused on style and personality ("Yes We Can") --anything but the issues that are of primary concern to the concentrated private power centers that largely finance campaigns and run the government" (Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Women in the media, too, have been lulled into tolerating it because it is difficult to stand up to SEXISM at the risk of losing their paychecks. It's blatant that women in the media see the disparate treatment of HRC, but have convinced the masses that this pugilist is a pariah.
Without an NIE report read, Senator Obama touts his sound decision-making (as a State Senator) for opposing the War in Iraq. With hindsight, unbeknownst to him, there were no weapons of mass destruction. His argument that he made the right choice is a fallacy: he didn't make any such decision as a U.S. Senator with the emotions of September 11th still riding high and our response to maintain strong national security. Albeit, none of these assertions are earth-moving or original arguments; what is important here is to remind voters that he does not command a bastion of foreign policy knowledge nor does his redundant, "I voted against the war" a viable argument to support his candidacy.
Unfortunately, those who purport that the frontrunner will unite people have already demonstrated that the frontrunner will unite NO one except perhaps the myopic misanthropists, who, most likely, come January 2009, will be in a seething cauldron of woeful, broken promises teeming with scintillating rhetoric.
Share this with the superdelegates.
Posted By: Mimi13 @ 05/12/2008 10:25:20 PM
Comment: Colin Powell has said on talk show that he does not support McCain's war policy., He's hinted that he might support Obama.
Posted By: powin @ 05/12/2008 6:26:53 PM
Comment: Tired and Old wrote, "BILL CLINTON IS IN AUSTRIA TODAY LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME. MUST HAVE A SOUND PROOF BASEMENT, KEYLESS LOCK, FIVE AND ONE HALF FOOT CEILING AND LEG IRONS BOLTED TO FLOOR. CALL CHELSEA AND WARN HER ! NOW ! REALLY !"
TiredandOld,
Denigrating that young woman's egregious suffering (in Austria) to amuse yourself is the nadir of your existence. Your poorly composed vituperative and calumny towards Chelsea Clinton shows a sad and rageful man with no semblance of etiquette or humanity. Seriously, you need to focus on properly expressing anger and to refrain from filthy humor that hurts people.
Posted By: Alvy: "First you write you don't like people that sling. Then you sling. Your wordiness is as idiotic as your fanaticism po. Don't just blow people down, criticizing people blowing people down. Big words don't make it nice. Don't pretend."
Alvy,
Chivalry is not slinging. Of all the bloggers in Newsweek, in the parlance of our times, you "sling" as if your life depended on it.