Column: Sexism Plagues Clinton Campaign Since Start

This story was written by Amanda Teuscher, The Post

Its really amazing how close we could be to electing a female president. I say could be because Ive come to realize that there are still some obstacles to overcome.

One only has to look at some of the medias coverage of Sen. Hillary Clintons campaign or hear a friends visceral and hateful opinion about her to guess that we have a little way to go in accepting a woman as our leader.

First, let me say that this is in no way an endorsement of Sen. Clinton. Also, to say that all those who dislike Sen. Clinton feel that way because she is a woman is to say that every person in America would support her if she were a man, which is obviously absurd. Sen. Clinton has a lot of political baggage and is often a very polarizing figure.

I have talked to plenty of men and women who can give me valid and insightful reasons for why they choose to support Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain. There are also people (including friends) who can offer me nothing more than I just dont like her, or, better still, Shes a bitch, and then give me no conclusive proof that her bitchiness is anything more than her being tough.

But its hard to prove subtle sexism, and even harder to discuss it with people who you know believe sexism is wrong but still might be influenced by the sexist messages out there.

This column is to let others who have been offended by those messages know that its not just them. This column is not to convince people that sexism has been lodged against Sen. Clinton and has permeated the campaign coverage in the past half-year. Some simply refuse to believe it, and I dont flatter myself that I would be able to change their minds.

(Although, if anyone else would like to attempt it, I can think of a few examples off the top of my head:Iron my shirtsigns, the completelyun-funny jokeby comedian Penn Jillette, MSNBCsChris Matthews, the popularShe couldnt satisfy her husband; she wont satisfy Americasaying,T-shirts that say I love country music pictorially, with Sen. Clintons face serving as the first syllable of country andChris Matthews again.)

I like to avoid treating The Media as the source of all our societys problems. That happens too often. Like our society, though, the media condone sexism a bit more than they do racism, when neither should be condoned. This is not to say that you cannot find examples of both. More importantly, it is not to say that one is worse than the other.

Unfortunately, though, it seems that if Sen. Clinton brings up the issue, she runs the risk of being accused of exactly that. Some feminist bloggers, whom I genuinely respect and often agree with, have dubbed this the Oppression Olympics," which I find rather unhelpful. There has been wonderfully little racism in this presidential race, but the same cannot be said of misogyny. We should be able to talk about it.

I spent much of my childhood wanting to grow up to be the president, a fact I often kept to myself when I was younger. I gave up that dream when I was 17, before I got to college. I told myself that we just werent ready for a female president, and perhaps I wasnt courageous enough to devote my life to a dream that might not be fulfilled.

So when Sen. Clinton won the Ohio primary on March 4 and greeted the jubilant crowd in Columbus with a white male governor and a black female congresswoman behind her, I couldnt help it: I cried. Maybe it wasnt so impossible, after all.

But things have changed for me in the last three months. The more Sen. Clinton has to deflect disrespectful comments about her appearance, the more I find myself rooting for her. I didnt vote for her in the primary, but I defend her every time I hear claims that she is a bitch for not quitting the rce (and even if you dont like her, its a fact that she has enormous amounts of voter support <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/19/AR2008051902729_2.html?sid=ST2008052001346> and has won many of the larger states).

Its also very personal. I imagine myself giving an impassioned answer and hearing that I was being too aggressive, or tearing up at something very personal and being told I wasnt strong enough to run our country. I imagine learning that the biggest piece of news following a debate is my cleavage.

It makes me angry that such instances are accepted by a large part of our society. And if we cant talk about it, then its even worse than I thought.