The action figure vs the nutcracker
The other night, in a post-debate interview, Katie Couric asked Hillary Clinton, "Why do you think Sarah Palin has an action figure and you have a nutcracker?"
A lot of people said that Couric hit a new low asking something like that, but I don't agree. I thought it was a playful way of asking why does one strong ambitious woman get treated by the media and half the public as a castrating shrew, while another is embraced as warm, safe, lovable, and cuddly?
In case you haven't seen them:
Clinton laughed it off, because she was there to stump for Barack Obama...and if there's one thing Hillary Clinton is good at it's staying focused. Yet, it gave her an opportunity to do something she does even better than stay on point.
Laugh.
But then I like her laugh.
Under other circumstances it could be an interesting and important question and I'd like to hear Clinton answer it. I'd like to know why she thinks she is hated, vilified and feared for doing what other politicians do as standard operating procedure?
I'd like to hear her talk about the double-standard she was subjected to. What a perfect opening to speak about the hypocrisy of conservative women like Sarah Palin, who have accused Clinton of "whining" when Clinton cried foul about the sexism and misogyny she had to battle throughout the primaries.
The same conservative women, by the way, who are happy to let Hillary do their "whining" and fighting for them, winning them rights and opportunities -- that they then use to empower themselves so they can work to deny women's rights and opportunities to other, less fortunate women.
I still can't get over how right-wing men were dumb enough to think they could siphon off female votes from Hillary Clinton to Sarah Palin. I guess they see all vaginas as interchangeable.
It must be said that Sarah Palin has gotten to be an action figure because women like Hillary Clinton had to be nutcrackers.
More importantly, how sad that both the nutcracker and the doll reduce the women in question to jokes and toys. The nutcracker is insulting, demeaning, and offensive; the doll is a fantasy figure, a Barbie doll you can dress up in hunter's cammies or a short plaid skirt, knee socks, and a tight white blouse with a red bra peeking out...pick your fetish. Either way, she's a play thing and as dehumanizing as the nutcracker.
They are two expressions of the same impulse -- to demean certain women who are stronger, smarter and more competent than certain men by turning such women into jokes.
We have such a longer way to go baby...
