aaryn belfer.

excellent piece, and I do so agree. which is why I am hesitant to support Clinton (why is it we freely call HER by her first name, and other candidates– male– are referred to by their last name?)
ANYWAY. My granddad was a registered republican and after he died I continued to get mailers. and boy oh boy is there a campaign of hate against her. Not her fault, of course, but still if she is the Democratic nominee I fear it will get really really ugly.
… and Bill Clinton not withstanding… Hillary Clinton seems like yesterday and for me, Barak Obama seems like tomorrow
Yes, parts of yesterday were good. We weren’t at war, we had record breaking budget SURPLUS and life was good. But can it be great?
and bottom line– ANYTHING is better than what we’ve got now.
those are my thoughts… for now. I may blog this later.

Posted by Jenn on 5 February 2008 @ 12pm

I’ll say this: I dream of an America where a woman, particularly a liberal woman, can run for public office without being called a bitch, cunt, ball-breaker, or, my favorite, FAT, as if not being a sweet piece of ass is an egregious offense to mankind.

Morgan is most certainly right about one thing: the underlying sexism and misogyny in our culture is ugly, pervasive, and horribly persistent.

Posted by Melanie at BeanPaste on 5 February 2008 @ 12pm

Excellent piece. And after also reading the link that you posted yesterday, Aaryn, I am almost kind of relieved that I can, in fact, NOT vote, because the decision is getting harder by the minute.

Posted by san on 5 February 2008 @ 1pm

I’m Canadian, so of course I’m only a distant observer of this presidential race. I have to say though, that the sexist comments I hear about HRC on a daily basis are truly sickening. I’m continually shocked by the comments and phrases which are casually slipped into debates and commentaries. Some days I don’t know what is worse – the words themselves, or the fact that they slide right by with no one speaking up against them. It’s all perfectly acceptable.

It’s so interesting to me that you would post this today, because I was thinking just this morning that this race is bringing some ugly truths to light. Truths that exist regardless of the election, but I’m thinking about them more lately. And this piece made my blood boil.

Oh, and one more thing : I freakin’ love your writing. I feel compelled to say thanks for everything. Your words and photos inspire me everyday.

Posted by jillian on 5 February 2008 @ 3pm

I had a similar conversation the other day that touched on this issue. On one side, women are historically the largest group of oppressed people on the planet. On the other, within the borders of U.S. American history, black men may have more weight on the scales of oppression.

I can’t help wondering if the primary will repeat history in the same way black men got to vote (1868 14th Ammendment) before women (1920 19th Ammendment).

Posted by Nathan on 5 February 2008 @ 3pm

I would like to say that I have been tempted to vote for Obama. He is charismatic, he sounds really great. But, skeptic that I am, I really think he’s just as much a politician as Hillary or any one else out there who’s still in the race. Will he really be an agent for change once he’s elected? Politicians aren’t supposed to vote their opinion, they are supposed to REPRESENT their constituency (read: get reelected) which I believe both democratic candidates have done in their political pasts. So, all else being essentially equal in my mind, I will most likely vote based on gender. I really don’t believe that it matters much who gets elected, as long as they are NOT a republican. And I, too have daughters. Black daughters to boot.
Also, doesn’t Obama also have white heritage? It bothers me that any black heritage means that a person is considered black. He is also a white man. Isn’t he?

Posted by Rayna on 5 February 2008 @ 5pm

Loved it and agreed with Morgan on many points. I also agree with Melanie too.

Who knew being XX was such a liability (rolls eyes)? Sexism is very much alive and well.

Change is starting with my son. He’s going to be a bigger feminist than I. Count on it!

Posted by Martha on 5 February 2008 @ 7pm

@Jenn: I couldn’t agree more that Obama seems like tomorrow. As another friend of mine wrote to me tonight, “he looks like the future to me.” This is an important commentary, one that I think Andrew Sullivan was trying to convey in his wonderful piece.

@Melanie: I couldn’t agree with you more. But I have to admit that I’ve even fallen prey to the insidious existence of the sexism that gets used so effectively against Clinton. Racism, I’m starting to learn, is much more easily and frequently pointed out and addressed.

@San: It wasn’t easy. Right up to the end.

@Jillian: I agree that this election is bringing a lot of important conversation to the consciousness of the American (and the Canadian!) public. I find it intriguing that pundits—and therefore people I meet in real life—talk about how this election shouldn’t be about race or gender. But race and gender inform every part of American life and to pretend they don’t is live in a fantasty. The conversations are awkward and difficult but they must be had; if this is what it takes to begin having them, then I say we should take the blinders off and slam on the gas pedal.

@Nathan: The conversations this election is igniting are fascinating and important. As for a Ground Hog Day effect, it will be interesting for sure. But as you said, black men suffer from oppression to a greater degree than women and evidence of this is in the fact that though they were given the right to vote in 1868 (thanks for not making me go look it up), they were most often prevented from doing so until well past the time when women could easily vote. Remember poll taxes, intimidation tactics and whatnot.

@Rayna: So nice to hear from you…thanks for stopping in! Kiss the girls for me, please. Now, to what you said, I think a vote for either candidate sends all three of our girls a positive message. They can’t be losers here because they can see themselves reflected in the female and black candidates. As to whether Obama is “white” well, I fall back on our experience with adoption to decipher this one. I don’t know what you and Taylor experienced but during our process, we learned that many agencies do not allow white couples to request a bi-racial child; this is a good thing, in my opinion, because such a request raises a lot of questions, the least of which is “why.” But when I inquired about this (not because I wanted to request anything but because I wanted to understand our agencies’ policies), I learned that this kind of selectivity is prohibited because a bi-racial child who has one black parent is considered in the black community to be black, and the agencies worry that any parent who requests a biracial child will dismiss/ignore the black heritage of the child. And part of becoming the white parents of a black child requires a commitment to connecting our child(ren) to her heritage. So, I am hesitant to say outright that Obama is exploiting one part of his ethnicity.

@Martha: I don’t doubt that V will make you and me and Hilary very proud.

Posted by Aaryn on 5 February 2008 @ 10pm

I just spent an hour and 45 minutes reading Morgan’s piece and all the comments regarding it. I can’t thank you enough for leading me to it.

Posted by Mrs. G. on 5 February 2008 @ 10pm

You’re welcome, Mrs. G. Somehow, I knew you’d like that. Please, spread it around. You have a much larger audience and could get it some serious viewage (pretty sure that’s not a word but I’m sticking to it because you know why? I’m the decider around these parts).

Posted by Aaryn on 5 February 2008 @ 11pm

What Mrs. G. said.

I sent my college-age daughters the link to Morgan’s article. I voted for Hillary and was glad for not only the opportunity to vote my mind and heart together in one ink-filled bubble (no chads?), but also glad to know that even if I don’t get my first choice, Obama would be good for us, very good for us, too.

Peace to you Aaryn.

Posted by Cheri on 6 February 2008 @ 1pm

Oops. There I go with denial over my aging old self — one of those aforementioned daughters is a college grad. D’oh! In fact, they are both twenty-somethings. Aaryn, I am OLD!!! Poor little Laura.

Posted by Cheri on 6 February 2008 @ 1pm