mz. cocco says it better than i ever could

Misogyny I Won't Miss

By Marie Cocco
Thursday, May 15, 2008



As the Democratic nomination contest slouches toward a close, it's time to take stock of what I will not miss.

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan "Bros before Hos." The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet.

I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless-steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won't miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item.

I won't miss episodes like the one in which liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a "big [expletive] whore" and said the same about former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. Rhodes was appearing at an event sponsored by a San Francisco radio station, before an audience of appreciative Obama supporters -- one of whom had promoted the evening on the presumptive Democratic nominee's official campaign Web site.

I won't miss Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.

Political discourse will at last be free of jokes like this one, told last week by magician Penn Jillette on MSNBC: "Obama did great in February, and that's because that was Black History Month. And now Hillary's doing much better 'cause it's White Bitch Month, right?" Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski rebuked Jillette.

I won't miss political commentators (including National Public Radio political editor Ken Rudin and Andrew Sullivan, the columnist and blogger) who compare Clinton to the Glenn Close character in the movie "Fatal Attraction." In the iconic 1987 film, Close played an independent New York woman who has an affair with a married man played by Michael Douglas. When the liaison ends, the jilted woman becomes a deranged, knife-wielding stalker who terrorizes the man's blissful suburban family. Message: Psychopathic home-wrecker, begone.

The airwaves will at last be free of comments that liken Clinton to a "she-devil" (Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who helpfully supplied an on-screen mock-up of Clinton sprouting horns). Or those who offer that she's "looking like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court" (Mike Barnicle, also on MSNBC).

But perhaps it is not wives who are so very problematic. Maybe it's mothers. Because, after all, Clinton is more like "a scolding mother, talking down to a child" (Jack Cafferty on CNN).

When all other images fail, there is one other I will not miss. That is, the down-to-the-basics, simplest one: "White women are a problem, that's -- you know, we all live with that" (William Kristol of Fox News).

I won't miss reading another treatise by a man or woman, of the left or right, who says that sexism has had not even a teeny-weeny bit of influence on the course of the Democratic campaign. To hint that sexism might possibly have had a minimal role is to play that risible "gender card."

Most of all, I will not miss the silence.

I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven't publicly uttered a word of outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

Would the silence prevail if Obama's likeness were put on a tap-dancing doll that was sold at airports? Would the media figures who dole out precious face time to these politicians be such pals if they'd compared Obama with a character in a blaxploitation film? And how would crude references to Obama's sex organs play?

There are many reasons Clinton is losing the nomination contest, some having to do with her strategic mistakes, others with the groundswell for "change." But for all Clinton's political blemishes, the darker stain that has been exposed is the hatred of women that is accepted as a part of our culture.

Marie Cocco is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. Her e-mail address is mariecocco@washpost.com.

details

in regards to the democratic primaries, it seems like the time between january and now has been an eternity. and during these last four months, the media has been thorough in reporting obama news, but not so much on hillary. so i figured i could help them out by filling that gap a little bit.

here is a re-cap of the states won by hillary:

New Hampshire
Nevada
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Ohio
Rhode Island
Texas
Pennsylvania
Indiana
West Virginia
Kentucky

while i will vote for whoever the declared democratic presidential nominee is come november 4 (only a complete moron would do otherwise), consider this: no candidate has ever won the presidency without winning one of the aforementioned states.

by the way, according to the latest abc/washington post poll, 59% of blacks support hillary as VP if obama wins the nomination. 64% of democrats think she should stay in the race.

obama/clinton. clinton/obama. either way, we could basically pop open the pink champagne bottle now because this is a sure win! money in the bank.

this entry was brought to you by the word "choice" - as in the freedom of - and the punctuation "?", as in ask some.

indulgences

rainy look. d&g/gossip girl inspired.
i don't usually do this. however, on friday as i was walking to the office, some young-looking dude who walked past me told me more or less that what i was wearing (my rainy look) was bad and that i'm only getting what i deserved (which was his not being able to take his eyes off me, apparently). two things came to mind immediately: he was blaming me for his ability to see, and i wished i knew how to say in spanish, "please go to church and pray for me" (ahora yo sé como decirlo). what really annoyed me was that he started saying what he said when he was behind me. homie hadn't even seen the front of my outfit and was already judging me? at least wait til you see the whole package before you strike your gavel, shit. you and your tired sergio tacchini track jacket, baggy jeans over ballet-slipper-looking adidas sneaker get-up. for real though.

ah, that dude cracked me up. shredded baggy-jean bottoms cleaning the street as he walked and shit.

fine lines...

the only difference between now and the reagan years is that my parents aren't threatening to divorce each other over money woes these days. they're actually chilling (dad's retired now after thirty years of federal service). and while gas prices may be ridiculously high ($3.95 at my local pump), the good thing is that i'm inclined to spend just that more time with my folks instead of immediately jumping in my car to consume something.

yesterday while driving west on santa monica blvd. from m+b gallery, i was tripping on a caltrans sign on the side of the road. it said that as of january 08 it's illegal to smoke in your car if there's a minor riding with you. so basically, i should be carding kids before i let them in my ride. hahahaha

the thing is, i'm the happiest i've ever been. i am home! the Man keeps dropping his fear bombs, but the truth is he's the Old Man now. no matter how much botox he injects, his shit's tired. and i'm laughing, loving, and smoking through it all.

"roll that shit, light that shit, smoke..."