Hillary Clinton bows out and endorses Barack Obama
I came in just in time to watch Hillary Clinton give her endorsement to Barack Obama. It was an interesting speech. She never talked about losing, she talked about the disappointment of not getting the nomination. She also didn't talk about Obama's legitimate win, she only mentioned his victory.
I was on Twitter writing about the speech and I have to say I am relieved she finally said the words a lot of us wanted to hear 2 months ago : that is time to come together and support Obama.
I thought it was gracious and I also noticed that she kept on repeating at the end "we need to help elect barack obama our president" , almost as if she repeated it seven times herself she would truly and honestly embrace it.
I was also taken aback by her late realization that she became a woman who ran for president as opposed to being a candidate who happened to be a woman. I've always said that Hillary Clinton never struck me as a feminist, but as one of the millions of middle class white women who benefitted from the equal opportunity policies that came after the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements.
Yet this campaign seems to have made her a born-again feminist :
"I am a woman, and like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious, and I want to build an America that respects every one of us," she said. "We must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers."
It was really refreshing to hear her say that this country needed to work for women's equality. It's amazing, because as the Senator of New York I had never, ever heard her utter those words.
So am going to say "Thanks Hillary" and leave it at that, for now because the hard part just begun --after a brutal campaign that she waged by attacking Obama as the least prepared of the two, there's just no amount of campaigning she can do that'll take those words back.
Post to TwitterHey Kev
She's from the school of feminism that believes you have to be more like a man to be successful.
I think that's not only key to her problems --if you embrace the patriarchy because you believe that's the path to success, then you are still part of the status quo that creates obstacles for women in the first place.
I think that's part of the reason so many women, especially young women, were turned off. You don't have to be a feminist academic to get how incongruous that path to empowerment is.
As to this,
Personally, I think there's a higher more authentic glass ceiling that can be broken that involves pursuit of change without surrendering key principles. But wtf do I know?
LOL! Well you obviously have given us the answer there, no?
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I'm with you, Liza
I never considered her a feminist. She's more of an entitled rich white lady. If you've got enough money, isms barely touch you.
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I considered her a feminist
I thought she was a very important and outspoken advocate for women globally, but as First Lady, not so much as Senator.
Her advocacy for children prior to marriage receives the most press, but she was an articulate feminist then, too. I don't know how nuanced she was in covering the range of subset issues that encompasses, but as she took up elective office, she's been a bit too embracing of the patriarchal constructs, not just in Senate structure but in her participation in that odd conservative fundie prayer group there, too.
Is that the necessary price of higher ambition?
Personally, I think there's a higher more authentic glass ceiling that can be broken that involves pursuit of change without surrendering key principles. But wtf do I know?