“If the media disrespects a privileged (read rich) white woman, all
women will be fair game. If the media disrespects a poor woman of
color, the media will disrespect poor women of color. For example,
Williams was relatively ignored by the media until bloggers demanded
more attention. If a rich white woman had been in the same situation,
it would have been the story of the year.

To be clear, IN BOTH CASES, ALL WOMEN ARE ATTACKED.”

It just …doesn’t make any ~sense~. The Better Viewed People among a group
don’t carry the burden of the people on the lower rungs when the lower
rungs get screwed, dammit. If it worked that way the earth would’ve
found Utopia by now, because people don’t like burdens and the Better
Situated at the beginning of society’s creation who were ‘carrying’
the pain of the people on the lower rungs would’ve helped to fix the mess. In other words we’d have equality by now. But there isn’t, as of yet, equality, because the people at the top of the heap aren’t attacked when the people at the bottom get screwed. This one seems to hang on qualifiers more than female. Women are treated as women differently based on what other qualifiers they also have. You can’t just separate woman from poor, or woman from black, or …well, the list goes on.

What you seem to be talking about could be considered a spin on the Trickle Down Theory. “Treat this rich white woman better, because then the goodness will slide on down to you, or at least, hopefully, you won’t get treated any worse than you already are”.

And you know? I didn’t see that Trickle Down Theory working in Hillary’s favor based on other groups she belongs to, either. I don’t remember any men that are part of Hillary’s qualifiers (the culture she belongs to, fer instance) going to their fellows, “Damn, dude, we’ve been lax! We really need to share this pie with all these women who also resembles us because we’ve a lot of the same experiences, run in the same social circles, eat the same food…”, I certainly don’t remember seeing that, no. So why would one qualifier (gender) being treated better when it’s also attached solely to the qualifiers ‘rich and ‘white’ in the media, how is that supposed to help women who aren’t also rich and white? Those affects aren’t going to trickle down to those poor women and women of color because (I don’t think) most people associate Hillary with living disadvantaged lives. Because, for the record, when I hear the name “Hillary Clinton”, the first thing that comes to mind are other rich white women in her situation, which aren’t ~nearly~ all women. So I really doubt better gender-based media representation for Clinton is going to help the bulk of women in general.

If the media disrespects a privileged (read rich) white woman, all women will be fair game.”

The rest of the women are ~already~ considered fair game.

I saw that happen locally in two parallel cases involving hit and runs of two women, one Black and one White. The Black woman had the minimum two homicide detectives assigned to her case and it’s gone cold since it happened five years ago. The White women had eight detectives, two evidence techs and the homicide sergeant working on it. It cleared in 72 hours and the man involved was convicted of her murder several months ago. It’s pretty much like that in other cases with the exception being if the murder of a Latino or Black individual gets a lot of media attention for some reason.

And as said, if the media respects a poor and/or woman of color, then it will trickle up to impact wealthier or middle-class powerful White women on occasion.

I saw that happen locally in two parallel cases involving hit and runs of two women, one Black and one White. The Black woman had the minimum two homicide detectives assigned to her case and it’s gone cold since it happened five years ago. The White women had eight detectives, two evidence techs and the homicide sergeant working on it. It cleared in 72 hours and the man involved was convicted of her murder several months ago. It’s pretty much like that in other cases with the exception being if the murder of a Latino or Black individual gets a lot of media attention for some reason.

And as said, if the media respects a poor and/or woman of color, then it will trickle up to impact wealthier or middle-class powerful White women on occasion.

If the media disrespects a privileged (read rich) white woman, all women will be fair game. If the media disrespects a poor woman of color, the media will disrespect poor women of color. For example, Williams was relatively ignored by the media until bloggers demanded more attention. If a rich white woman had been in the same situation, it would have been the story of the year.

To be clear, IN BOTH CASES, ALL WOMEN ARE ATTACKED.

I’m talking about the direct consequences of media treatment.

I mean, the mirror argument is the kind of thing I expect to hear from rednecks. Or any ethnic group that is highly concious of another group’s standing. You *do* know that women are a gender, not an ethnic group, right? That there isn’t any such thing as a spoils system for women, should they “win”? It is entirely spurious for someone to believe in an equal impact on women, when gender is so mediated by race, class, appearance, and age.

It is not spurious, though to believe that attention from the ground up tends to increase the power of women everywheres, simply for the fact that you increase the number of women who are *able* to compete at higher and higher levels. Moreover, as that classic XKCD comic shows, what truly shows any group’s acceptance into society as a normal, fully human being, is the idea that your mistakes don’t translate as the mistake of the group you are percieved as belonging to. Hillary Clinton should be celebrated as someone who has achieved beyond what most women has been able to reach, but to *identify* with Hillary Clinton to a great extent is to tempt people away putting attention and resources into having more women who can succeed (like that whole mini-storm over Hillary being the only eligible female VP). There is also the risk that Hillary Clinton’s mistakes become identified with the rest of the female political class. Two-way street, you know…