Posted on 05/01/2008 8:33:17 PM PDT by rface
What happened to the nicey-nice? Usually when I listen to Rush Limbaugh (for research, people), my heart sings when I hear a candidate like Obama labeled a tax and spend liberal. Why did I feel so disappointed by his success?.....when Gloria Steinem wrote a widely read opinion piece in the New York Times, you better believe my heart sang. But many women writers in the blogosphere whom I respect and admire called the essay sexist. And racist. And they said very hateful things about women like me who support Hillary Clinton, including that they are sexist and racist. One blogger on Feministing.com called it pro-vagina selfishness........
When I first started thinking about a Democratic presidential nominee for 2008 (sometime after the weeping stopped in November 2004), my criterion was simple: not another white guy.
I have nothing against individual white guys, mind you. My charming husband happens to be one, and before long my 8-year-old son will be one too. But white guys are way too entrenched. Theyve been running things since the dawn of humanity, despite a handful of anthropological studies that show matriarchies did exist, before patriarchies squashed them like bugs (lady bugs).
So imagine my thrill when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama looked like my partys choices for 2008. Joy! Rapture! Why, back in the old days of ought-seven, discussing the candidates was sheer pleasure. No one argued. Everyone gasped, oh my gosh, arent we lucky?
Then the calendar flipped to 2008. I wore my Hillary pin at the new Richfield SuperTarget and got looks as dirty as Ive seen in any campaign season. I attributed this to suburban conservatism. Imagine my surprise when at my precinct caucus, deep in the heart of the Peoples Republic of South Minneapolis, I felt the sting of being in the political minority. I havent had that experience since I wore my homemade Dump Reagan pin to my classes at Edinas South View Junior High. Suddenly, political discussions were making my stomach ache.
Why? Was it so hard to have people not agree with me? What happened to the nicey-nice? Usually when I listen to Rush Limbaugh (for research, people), my heart sings when I hear a candidate like Obama labeled a tax and spend liberal. Why did I feel so disappointed by his success?
I realized that I wanted a woman to be the nominee much more than I thought. I wasnt satisfied with Obama, who is not white. Hes still a guy, and I am sick of guys.
Yet when I announce this, I am accused of being not only sexist but racist. No, I dont mean me personally, mostly because I am too mousy to stand up in the public square and talk about how sick I am of men in power (though my supportive husband encourages this). I should defer to the royal we here, because when Gloria Steinem wrote about the subject in a widely read opinion piece in the New York Times, you better believe my heart sang.
But many women writers in the blogosphere whom I respect and admire called the essay sexist. And racist. And they said very hateful things about women like me who support Hillary Clinton, including that they are sexist and racist. One blogger on Feministing.com called it pro-vagina selfishness.
Oh, dear. No more nicey-nice.
My daughter Miriam will be 3 years old in May. Lets imagine, shall we? Say Hillary Clinton is elected in 2008 (my best case), proves utterly ineffectual in office (worst case) and is defeated in 2012 by George P. Bush (whose mother is a native of Mexico). My daughter grows until adulthood with a woman president as historical fact, not a figment of her imagination. Any jerk messing with her self-esteem will get a sassy retort about President Hillary from my tough little girl, who is already known in her neighborhood for not playing princess. When my daughter puts on a tiara, she knows to be queen.
By all accounts, Barack Obama is almost as cool a guy as my husband and son. If hes the Democratic Party nominee, I will happily support him. But these days when I see him on camera, Im always peeking over his shoulder, thinking: Hmm, that Michelle Obama is one smart and accomplished woman. Why didnt she run? Damn.
Is wanting a woman to run the show selfish? Yes. I acknowledge that it is. So is wanting 50 percent of the members of Congress and at least three more Supreme Court justices to be women. I also want 50 percent of the parents watching their kids at the park to be men. I want what any parent wants. I want a pro-vagina world for both of my children.
Perhaps the most important lesson of the campaign is that untangling gender, race, class and so many other of the big -isms is far more difficult than anyone thought. The shouters on both sides exhort us to vote blind to them all, to cast our ballots on issues alone. OK. I took one of those candidate surveys on the Internet and was given my perfect match: Dennis Kucinich.
Never mind.
Shannon Drury is a self-described radical housewife. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.
Remember Jim Robinson in your prayers........
Someone needs to tell her that Hillary isn’t a woman.
For the love of God, where is the barf alert?
It’s good to know that this bimbo relies on Rush when she is doing her “research.” The other pinheads she mentioned reading in this article have no credibility.
Whenever I hear women, like this one, talk...I start wondering why women were ever allowed to vote.
Nope, just plain stupid.
Often the simplest explanation is the correct one. You're just dumb as a box of rocks. Do you have to hire someone to wipe your rear end?
I’m about as pro-vagina as they come. You might even call me a vagitarian. But the broad who wrote this is nuts.
I’ve always been pro-vagina. I’m also in favor of amateur vaginas.
Sounds like the author is both sexist and racist by the typical liberal definition. What if a white conservative would have said, "not another black woman"? They would be tarred and feathered as a sexist "racist" by all in the media and the politician whom said such a thing would be a leading story for every "news" outlet. The hypocrisy on the left is astounding to me. If they took 5 minutes out of their day of brow beating the rest of us for things we don't do and looked in the mirror, they would find themselves to be the enemy of their own ideology.
If we are not Pro-vagina are we against a vagina? I imagine that often, but then my misses gets better all the time!
I think it depends upon the owner of said vagina.
Homemaking is a tough job.
But most radical feminist housewives I am aware of have nannies for their kids, cleaning women for their homes, gardeners for their yards, and gourmet caterers for their tables.
Women's politics always seems to boil down to having the government force men to do more around the house.
I’ve always been pro-vagina.
I concur.
Her "husband" squats to pee. Of this I am certain.
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