Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Clinton and the Challenges of Feminism

A few days ago, the New York Times had an interesting article on potential sexism in the coverage of Hillary Clinton: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/us/politics/13women.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print. I've been talking about this issue with my students and, ignoring for the moment the rather sleazy campaign that she sometimes ran, I do believe there is some truth in this claim.

It appears that Democrats are more comfortable with a Black man than a woman candidate for president. This is unfortunate. And the claims by the campaign of media bias seem fair though maybe not balanced. The difficult aspect of deconstructing the negative coverage is disentangling the general dislike for the Clintons that has built over the past almost twenty years from the issue of gender. While Clinton certainly received a lot of negative press, it is unclear if this is related more to her relationship to her husband and past as first lady or a general discomfort with a female Commander in Chief.

The bigger issue, however, remains -- which seems to me to be the conundrum of running for office as a woman. On the one hand, it would seem you would get more votes being more attractive and potentially benefit from your appeal as fitting certain feminine stereotypes (that while essentializing by their nature) voters might prefer over the bellicose, masculine, white male norm. And yet there is also the expectation that you fit into the traditional white, male macho role. Clinton seemed to bring a careful balance of the two, though clearly veering closer to the masculine requirements of the job. By taking this tact, she clearly turned off many who are uncomfortable with a woman who appears too masculine/macho. The press often derided or assailed her for her clothing, her demeanor or her tough tactics (while perfectly okay for Rove, McCain and the male white club in general). So how masculine could Clinton be without suffering from the press' derision and mainstream male discomfort (to put it nicely)? How feminine could she be without losing many voters and the press to our antiquated fear of women with power? Where does the balance lie? One wonders if it yet exists as a realistic formation in American politics, where sexism does in fact appear to still be rampant. It is an issue that I believe should (and will outside the mainstream media) be studied in great detail.

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