a word about gender and politics

Allow me to preface what is about to come by saying that I have no idea who I will vote for in the 2008 election. At this point, I might cast my vote as a write-in for Dennis Kucinich, because Holy Hay-seuss, am I tired of election coverage.

That being said, if we are allegedly a nation that more respects, reveres and "equally" treats its women, why can we not have one run for president without calling out her every display of emotion as evidence that she is unfit to lead?

Hillary is viewed a soulless, ball-busting man eater. Her campaign starts to go south, and she tears up on camera (probably a publicity move, but not any more than stumping, or going to church regularly, or the Republicans putting all ten minorities at their convention directly in line with cameras...but I digress.) and SUDDENLY she to too weak-willed and womanly to be a serious contender for the office of commander in chief.

An article from Slate shows the other part of Hil's gender that negatively influences her image, and her campaign — the fact that she has a powerful, famous, widely-recognized Democrat for a husband. I love Bill, will all of my heart, but this article has a point. If he keeps standing up for Hillary, people are going to think she can't stand up for herself.

Which brings me back around — America doesn't put its women in hijab, like them dayum Ay-rab terrorists who are supposedly our enemy, but we've also never had a woman leader, or even a female second in command. For all of our country's high-flying talk about respect and equality and democracy, there's still a huge portion of people (men and women) who would not vote for a woman president (ANY woman president) because Lord knows that when she gets her period, she's going to nuke the first thing she sees.

And that's not even saying anything about the disproportionate amount of coverage devoted to how Hilary looks, what Hilary wears, and whether or not she is in general "too manly."

Ireland, New Zealand, India, Mozambique, Germany, Finland, The Philippines, Switzerland, Chile and Liberia — ten countries— currently have elected or appointed female leaders. Another five have female monarchs.

Roughly half of Europe has had women in power at one point, and a large portion of the countries we consider Uhmarika superior to in Asia, South America and Africa have had them too. But in this country, we think powerful women are unnatural, against the order and out of their place — unless they're doing something for "women's issues" like healthcare, the (laughable) war on drugs, or education.

All men are created equal. And you bitches had better not forget it.