According to The Atlantic’s Michelle Cottle, a Hillary Clinton presidency will not only be a win for women as the first woman takes the White House – but it will usher in an “era of the bitch,” not because Clinton is one, but because Cottle believes a Clinton presidency will create an uptick in the amount of sexism and misogyny in the United States.
She writes:
You know it’s coming. As hyperpartisanship, grievance politics, and garden-variety rage shift from America’s first black commander-in-chief onto its first female one, so too will the focus of political bigotry. Some of it will be driven by genuine gender grievance or discomfort among some at being led by a woman. But in plenty of other cases, slamming Hillary as a bitch, a c**t (Thanks, Scott Baio!), or a menopausal nut-job (an enduringly popular theme on Twitter) will simply be an easy-peasy shortcut for dismissing her and delegitimizing her presidency.
Leonie Huddy, a professor of political science at Stony Brook University, predicted that Clinton will be “walking a fine line…she will be a historic figure who brings a different perspective to the job…but she is also going to be evaluated through the lens of, Is she just there for women?
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“Maybe she will do something bad to men. There is a latent fear among men that their position in American society will decline further. So while there are a lot of guys on board for equalizing gender power, there are also quite a few who aren’t,” Huddy added.
In an effort to lay the groundwork for reasoning if a second Clinton presidency fails, Cottle is already making excuses:
To avoid further pressurizing the situation—and setting Hillary up for massive failure—Clinton supporters (especially women) should try to control their expectations in terms of what the first woman president can accomplish…You can have a woman in the highest office in the land, but that office is still a highly masculinized office...People should also take care to avoid (even subconsciously) seeing Hillary’s inevitable stumbles and failures through the prism of gender.
Cottle opined one of the “most annoying parts of all this” is if a female leader pushes back against sexist attacks – it could invite even more. “You can try to call people out on it, but you have to be a little bit careful,” said Huddy, “people will say you’re playing the woman card, that you’re a crybaby, that you can’t handle it.”
Well, Clinton has already admitted and EMBRACED using the woman card. She’s said so on many occasions and even used it when campaigning against Obama back in 2008 – until he began using the race card.
If there’s one thing Cottle got right, it’s that a Clinton presidency will certainly usher in an “era of the bitch” but not because of sexism or misogyny; it will be because Clinton has shown the public over a 20 year span that she is more than qualified to be one.
