i am (we are) Hillary Clinton

a fabulous and now famous meme by the equally fabulous and famous Red Queen:

 I am Hillary Clinton.  WE ARE Hillary Clinton.

it cuts me when they say she is “pimping out her daughter” b/c i am trying to raise a socially conscious child myself, and we do a lot of good things together…it causes me to question that character education i am giving her, even though i know it’s the best for her…

it cuts me when they accuse her of being “too emotional“ b/c every time i start to cry i wonder if it is somehow ingrained, afterall, in my biology…if i should work harder to hide my feelings and be ashamed of them…i worry that it makes me look weak…and i am reminded that if i become emotional about something i care passionately about i will be discredited for being so…

it cuts me when they say “if you can’t run your own house you can’t run the white house” b/c it lets the scolding from the people who think that my family isn’t good enough hurt me again…it makes me question the wonderful job i am doing raising my daughter, w/ or w/o their help…it makes me take a look at my non-traditional family and wonder if i am doing something wrong…it cuts me b/c i too am criticized unjustly for the job i am doing as a mother…

it cuts me when they say “life’s a bitch, don’t vote for one“, b/c i worry about my daughter growing up w/ hatred and glass ceilings… and i know that as women she and i are always going to have to walk the sharp edge b/t being too soft and being to much of a “cold bitch“.  if we go along w/ the status quo, we are weak, if we stand up for ourselves we are “bitches”…

it cuts me when people accuse her of “hiding behind her gender“, b/c it reminds me of just how institutional and ingrained sexism is in our country.  it reminds me that when i point out any injustice towards women that i will be accused of looking for sexism where it doesn’t exist, and that i only feel that way because i am a girl.

it cuts me when they say she is “too ambitious“, b/c i am reminded that if i go after anything i want, i will be accused to being power hungry or being on a power trip.  i know that if i aggressively go after things that are important to me i will be painted as a ball busting whore who never learned her place (things that have actually been said to me).  i want my daughter to grow up knowing that she has every opportunity to be anything or anyone she wants to be, including but not limited to being the President. 

it cuts me when people call her a lesbian or a “dyke”, b/c i know they are trying to insult her, and i am struggling to teach my daughter better, that homosexuality is nothing to be ashamed of or hate or fear, that it is not wrong to love someone.  that it is not an insult.  it also cuts me b/c i hate the tired old stereotype of the “big bad butch maneating lesbo”.  it hurts me that people will try to hurt some of my dearest friends by turning a unique part of their personhood into an insult.  it is not an insult to be homosexual. 

it cuts me when people talk about her being “ugly“ or “manly“, b/c i don’t want my daughter growing up in a society that puts the value of a woman solely on her looks or how pleasing she is to some man.  i want her to know that she is the value of her own person.  that no one has the right to tell her she isn’t pretty enough or not good enough b/c of how she looks.  i want her to love whole people, not just the part that society tells us is important.  i want her to grow up knowing that men and women don’t have to behave a certain way to be accepted, that other than sperm donor or wetnurse or human incubator, there is no such thing as a gender specific job.

and a h/t to shakesville, whose “Hillary Sexism Watch“ i used to hunt down some stuff b/c i knew i would find it there.  Liss, your site rocks the Casbah!