blogger interrupted

So, I’m sure Jill’s head exploded this morning when she saw this picture on the cover of the NY Times, of Hillary Clinton’s mammary area surrounded by what might be mistaken for an array of sex toys.  I’m sure that’s what Jill thought.  Guarantee it.  Then when she saw it was a story about sexism in the coverage of the Clinton campaign…well….I’m just real glad I’m not Mr. Zimon.

I happen to think to whatever extent sexism affected the media’s coverage of Clinton’s campaign, it was ginned up and magnified by Hillary herself, who constantly referred to her status as a woman candidate, and sought to stoke outrage among her base.  As her campaign started to go downhill, this became one of only two strategies she had left.

The other was racism.  Which is why this line from the story is stunning.

“Like her or not, one of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued — and accepted — role of sexism in American life, particularly in the media,” Ms. Couric said.

She went on to lament the silence of those who did not speak up against it.

I have often written that to compare sexism and racism is utterly without intellectual honesty.  Women do not make up 90% of the prison population, 50% of women are not born out of wedlock, 50% of young women are not unemployed…there simply is no comparison.

When the coded racism became a strategy of the Clinton campaign, I “lamented the silence of those who did not speak up against it.”  Like, for example, Jill.  It was just too convenient to sit still while your preferred candidate benefitted from the coded racism.  Now, Katie Couric laments about her own perceived grievance.  

One silence leads to the kind of behavior that Couric laments, like for instance, becoming Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person In The World”.  Ha.  Another silence leads to the kind of behavior that Jim Clyburn refers to as fatal.  Which silence is more dangerous?  And which outrage has been more pronounced?  Katie Couric’s?  I think so.

No one talked less about Barack Obama being a black candidate than Barack Obama.  No one talked more about Hillary Clinton being a female candidate than Hillary Clinton.  If Barack had referred to his race as much as Hillary referred to her gender, he never would have won.  Perhaps Hillary should take a lesson from this.

Either way, losers always blame the media.  That’s fine.  But spare me the righteous indignation, at least until people like Jill speak up as loudly about the racism as they do about the sexism.  

Popularity: 21% [?]