Who do you (or other readers of this blog) think are the American female politicians who deal with sexism in the same gracious but effective way that Obama has dealt with racism in the campaign?

Every single woman holding office in the US, for starters. Clinton, especially.

Clinton doesn’t owe anyone a speech. That’s a ridiculous demand. Obama, however, does.

Who do you (or other readers of this blog) think are the American female politicians who deal with sexism in the same gracious but effective way that Obama has dealt with racism in the campaign?

Every single woman holding office in the US, for starters. Clinton, especially.

Clinton doesn’t owe anyone a speech. That’s a ridiculous demand. Obaman, however, does.

Dear God, NOOOOOOOO! We have heard about her being a female and the first female president since this whole thing started! Can’t she get off that crutch for one night!?

Crutch? And you post this on a feminist site?

*blink*

I asked about US female politicians from a position of interest, but limited knowledge (I’m British). So as a direct question: Who do you (or other readers of this blog) think are the American female politicians who deal with sexism in the same gracious but effective way that Obama has dealt with racism in the campaign? And are there feminist politicians who would be prepared to say to Gloria Steinem that things have changed from the 1960s (thanks to the efforts of activists like her) and that therefore feminist politicis needs a different rhetoric and aims from then (which is basically what Obama was saying about Jeremiah Wright)?

Oh, please. Spare me.

If Clinton wanted to make a gender speech she should have thrown Gloria Steinem under the bus when she started going on about women being more oppressed than blacks. Clinton should have pointed out that it wasn’t a contest about who had suffered most and that what she wanted was equality for all. And she should also have tried to reach out to the many men whose response when feminists complain about male power is, ‘well I don’t have any power either’. Feminists need to link the oppression of women to the general exploitativeness of the US system in this way if they’re going to build a wider coalition.

But I don’t think Clinton can get beyond Gloria Steinem’s second-generation feminism, unlike Obama getting beyond Jeremiah Wright’s sixties view of race. I don’t know if there are female US politicians who can.

I really don’t see Clinton making the “gender speech”. To many (me included), it would reek of yet more entitlement — the “I only lost because of sexism”I doubt she would give the thoughtful, reflective speech that is the analog of Obama’s.

Borrowing from Donna, here’s a gender speech right here from her excellent comments. But I don’t think Hillary is going to say it. It would be nice though.

“There are those who hate women, but there are also those who patronize women, they don’t hate us, but think we are less able, less intelligent, weaker, less than equal. It is this attitude amongst those who call themselves liberal, or progressive, or Democrats, that has infuriated Democratic women all across America during this campaign. We must eradicate these beliefs among our ranks in order to live up to the ideals of the Democratic Party.”