Is there an echo in here?...

Remember how Hillary Clinton was actively loathed and depicted by the Limbaugh's of the world as a calculating, power hungry she-devil for having the audacity to be a woman of accomplishment and confidence way back when her husband was running for president the first time? I am not and have never been much of a Clinton fan but much of what was leveled at her has always smacked of plain, old fashioned, garden variety misogyny. (There is plenty to criticize about Senator Clinton that is not rooted in the fact of her being a female, especially her continued support of overseas aggression* and that she has not accomplished much in terms of a progressive voting record since she became a senator. She is not alone in this: the Democratic politican as a spineless, sniveling whiner is the absolute gold standard with the exception of a few decent but relatively powerless folks like Kucinich. Oh, Nancy Pelosi, you have failed us.)

Anyway, I did not see Michelle Obama's speech the other night, but I was telling John a while back when people started first grumbling about her - she's too harsh! And this Harvard-educated lawyer and her husband hate "whitey!" (can't they do any better than this?) - that if we thought people were threatened by Hillary, wait until this educated and accomplished woman of color is masticated by U.S. talk radio. I wonder what is going to be her symbolic act of penance to mainstream America for her confidence and achievement. Will she have to bake cookies like Hillary? (GAH!!) Will she have to make a declaration on public record of all of her shortcomings and failures in chronological order? Will she have to demonstrate her two left feet on Dancing With The Stars? Only time will tell.

Shalom, everyone.

*I wonder if there is a word that's the female equivalent of "emasculation" (to strip a man of his masculinity and thus his power as a male, with the implication that he has become a pansy, a.k.a., a woman)? Efemization? Efemalezation? I need a equivalent word to describe the process of stripping a woman of her vital female power and turning her into an honorary male. I'm pretty sure this is what happened to Hillary Clinton somewhere along the road.