Intellectual Property Law

"Young women are growing increasingly frustrated with the fanatical support of Barack and gleeful bashing of Hillary."

By Siva Vaidhyanathan

So reports Rebecca Traister in this article at Salon, where she writes in part:

"... I began reporting this story in part because, as a 32-year-old woman who is more liberal than either candidate, and who was quite torn until Super Tuesday, I had found myself increasingly defensive of Clinton in the face of the Obama worship that rules the mostly white, liberal, well-educated circles in which I work and travel. I was confused by the saucer-eyed, unquestioning devotion shown by my formerly cynical cohorts, especially when it was accompanied, as it often was, by a sharp renunciation of Hillary Clinton, whose policies are so similar to her opponent's. I was horrified by the frequent proclamations that if Obama did not win the nomination, his supporters would abstain from voting in the general election, or even vote for John McCain. I was suspicious of the cultlike commitment to an undeniably brilliant and inspiring man ?- but one whom even his wife calls "just a man."

I am a loud feminist and a longtime Clinton skeptic who was suddenly feeling that I needed to rationalize, apologize for, or even just stay quiet about my increasing unease with the way Clinton was being discussed. Meanwhile, I was getting e-mails from men I didn't know well who approached me as a go-to feminist to whom they could express their hatred of Hillary and their anger at her staying in the race -- an anger that seemed to build with every one of her victories. One of my closest girlfriends, an Obama voter, told me of a drink she'd had with a politically progressive man who made a series of legitimate complaints about Clinton's policies before adding that when he hears the senator's voice, he's overcome by an urge to punch her in the face. ..."

Here is another excerpt that literally took my breath away:

"... I received e-mails and phone calls from women voicing various strains of frustration: They told me about the sexism they felt coming from their brothers and husbands and friends and boyfriends; some described the suspicion that their politically progressive partners were actually uncomfortable with powerful women. Others had to find ways to call me out of earshot of their Obama-loving boyfriends. Some women apologized for "sounding so feminist." Interviewees expressed vexation at not being able to put their finger on what it was about Obama-mania that creeped them out so badly, while maintaining a deep assuredness that something was not quite right. Perhaps most surprising was that the majority of the women I spoke to were not haters: They were Obama supporters, or at least Obama-appreciators. ..."

Yep, that's me, no longer fairly described as a "young" women, but a creeped out, freaked out, flinching Obama supporter nonetheless. There is gross misogyny in the MSM, as I blogged about here. And there is also a large cohort of women hating Supposedly Liberal Doods who have leadership roles, or wish to have leadership roles, in the Democratic Party. They despise having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and they seem to spend their days spewing poisonous sexism at misogynistic cesspools like Daily Kos. This requires many women like me to make a huge effort to mentally separate the candidate from the sexist assholes who are putatively "helping" him. It would be nice if Obama himself would ask them to ramp down the sexism a little, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. A sixty-something feminist, female, African American Obama supporting friend recently wrote me privately, and said: "This is the worst election experience I have had in my lifetime." I'm afraid I have to agree with her.

Full post as published by SIVACRACY .NET on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).