I’m supporting Obama in this race, but the sexism towards Hillary has been glaringly obvious.

For example, people go on and on about her horrible voice and her “cackle.” I never thought there was anything wrong with her laugh or her voice. I thought it odd when people started talking about them. She just sounds like an ordinary middle-aged woman. Perhaps that’s the problem. In our society, that’s automatically unattractive and unacceptable.

And the pantsuits. WTF? Who cares what she wears? Pants are more comfortable and practical. Why criticize her for choosing them? No one criticizes male politicians’ fashion choices. (Well, o.k. So maybe I occasionally criticize an ugly tie. But then I forget about it. This pantsuits thing goes on and on.)

it seems that you are living in a bubble,

… but you post miami sound machine clip… ehrrr…
she is republican and hasn’t been around since two decades ago. That’s seriously thick bubble you live in. heh.

I have read your posts on occasion, and heard you speak in person, and it seems that you are living in a bubble, that has nothing to do with geography.

That may seem harsh, but it’s my observation and I’m sticking to it.

The sexism in this primary season is staggering. And what is even more disturbing to me is the fact that far too many women don’t seem to hear it. Is sexism that ingrained in our society that otherwise intelligent people — men and women — just don’t hear it?

BAC

Most people have certain phobia toward spider or snake right? so deep that a convincing image (pictures, TV show, toys, etc) is enough to freak out a person even if it has no rational base whatsoever.

So now just take an image of a candidate and put a picture of spider or snake on it, in such a manner that transfer the phobia from snake or spider to the image of that person.

… see how this work at deep and irrational level? (It’s only image of spider and snake right?) but will flip people out VERY convincingly.

image of spider and snake work in even deeper level than word representing some abstract notion. I bet it can push around huge number of voters too.

Identity politics exists. That’s a reason why Bush die his hair on differently for each different occasion, or why Hillary has different make up on for different event.

Some people react viscerally to some cues. There are certain things that operate at deep level than perfect rational.

Race, gender, skin color, income, education level, clothing all has effect. (otherwise we won’t here pollster talking about this or that group of people has this or that voting pattern. They are measurable!)

for eg. religious symbolism might have zero effect on you, but to wingnut wacko it push some strong button.

or the word “bitch” probably is just another swear word to most people, but can be used to drive you bonker. Even to make you do things that you won’t do normally.

racially coded words are another example.

that’s what appeal to emotion are all about! because the so called “choosing leader” also operate at deeply emotional level.

In a minority, and they really go for the lesbian angle.

It’s not all over the place like it appears to be for Clinton.

Also, PIATOR, Helen Clark clearly brings out the misogyny; I hope you wouldn’t deny that. It’s one thing to have an issue with female politician’s politics but as I said above, when the first complaints out of someone’s mouth are that she’s a bitch (and Clark gets the voice thing, too as well as her sexuality questioned) then there’s definitely something going on there.

It’s obviously hard to convey a situation online, but the reason I reacted so strongly to my brother’s reaction was because it was clearly a gut reaction to her AS A WOMAN. He didn’t go for her policies, or the fact that she’s lied during the campaign or anything. It was just an overwhelming feeling on his part that she’s a bitch and he was using that to spin justifications for himself as to why he was against her. This is all quite aside from the fact that no powerful woman can escape being tarred as an uppity bitch by the media, so even the very image/feeling of Clinton as a bitch has in large part been constructed by the media over the past decade or more. Again, that’s not to say that she hasn’t done things people disagree with, just that the media construct of HRC never stood a chance of reflecting her career and abilities; it also comprises every misogynistic flavour they could possibly throw her way.

Myself, I favoured Clinton at one point in the campaign (as I did Edwards; I think they’re all good candidates) but would now prefer that Obama get the nomination. But there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that this post does indeed reflect the situation with a number of male voters who are anti-Clinton.

I rather like HRC’s voice, but does it make it any better if we call her an “asshole”? Because that’s how she’s ALWAYS come across. Is it more palatable?

(Does this also mean we can’t call Cheney a ‘prick’?)

Phoebe Fay- no one is dismissing anyone’s right to a full out flaming rant.

Bullshit.

I used to make jokes about this initially, jokes about people thinking I’m a traitor to my ovaries for supporting Obama. I used to shake it off, but it’s gotten worse. I’ve never been an especially active commenter on feminist blogs, but there are now places where I frankly won’t comment anymore because there is no way to make a pro-Obama comment without being attacked from six directions.

And, just look at what you’ve written. Imagine a man saying to a woman “no one is dismissing your right to rant” while he is, in fact, dismissing her experience. If it were a man saying it to a woman, I’m guessing you’d recognize the dismissive, condescending, arrogant air. You’d recognize the game being played.

I may not like many of Clinton’s strategies but for the political women who will follow her, she needs to stay in at this point to show that women will not be silenced into submission. Obama needs to beat her on her merits and the voters need to chose on the merits and the voters need to decide this at the polls.

Obama already has beaten her on her merits. Obama has won more votes, more states and more pledged delegates. He has registered more voters, raised more money and done more to energize the Democratic party’s activist base. Anyone who looks at the delegate counts and does the math knows there is no path to the nomination for Hillary Clinton other than convincing the superdelegates that Obama unelectable, and there is no way for her to do that without dragging the party down.

Let be me very clear. There is absolutely no way for the voters to decide this at the polls. There is no way for Clinton to pull ahead in pledged delegates. Thus, Clinton’s argument is that we have to let the voters finish voting so that the superdelegates can overrule the voters.

Acknowledging that mathematical reality is not silencing her into submission. Was Edwards silenced into submission when he dropped out? Was Biden or Dodd or Richardson? No. They simply acknowledged that they had lost. Lost fair and square. It’s life. It’s politics. Hillary Clinton is not exempt from reality.

- War
- collapsing economy
- gas price
- raising unemployment
- healthcare

People can’t pay bill, no job, losing home and economic prospect is dimming, on top of war gone terribly wrong. A person ability to solve key issues is FAR more important at this moment than anything else. Hillary fails to convince a lot of people on these issues.

and you are talking about dress, lifestyle, how big sexism should be compensated in election? Are you mad?

Try saying that outloud in the middle of townsquare. You’d be laugh off the stage. I DARE Hillary say “I can’t get to be president because you all are sexist” I DARE her saying that.

I also dare you make a big blog post doing that analysis. (as major voting criteria.)

One more news ….

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080419/ts_nm/ief_ramsay_dc_1

Record oil of $117 a barrel calls for a demand response and a supply response, but for now there is little to stop prices heading still higher, the deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Saturday.