Saturday, June 07, 2008

No Feminist Icon, She

My first grade teacher had on the front of her desk a poster with four rows, head shots of men. There were a few blank spots at the of the last row in the far right corner. Why are there no women, I asked my teacher. Mrs. Molnar answered that maybe, one day, there would be.

But not this woman. Thank God, not this one. I don't yet feel the breath of relief. I know we escaped a narrow catastrophe, because I have no doubt in my mind a Hillary Clinton presidency would have set the cause of women back decades. She was too much like George Bush in privledging loyalty over competence, fantasy over reality, lies over truth. And because she ran her campaign as a referendum on women power (as opposed to the power of her ideas), her failures would be chalked up to her lack of a y chromosome as well. Margaret Thatcher she is not.

I am deeply disturbed that this woman has become a feminist icon. To me it's emblematic of all that's wrong with the feminist movement in general. This women had no scruples sliming the women, the many women, that her husband preyed on. Stay in the marriage - fine - her choice. No one knows what goes on in a marriage but the two people in it and sometimes not even them. I do not begrudge her staying with that pig. But don't defend him at the expense of other women. Don't deny his nefarious, selfish actions as the imaginings of a conspiracy. Don't degrade the women who had to deflect and defeat the predatory actions of her husband.

For that I will never forgive her and for that I will never accept her as a feminist icon.

God has blessed America by saving us from more of the Clintons.

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