The Bitch and the Airhead: Blatant Women-Bashing Makes a Gut-Wrenching Comeback

By Daphne Merkin, The Daily Beast. Posted November 20, 2008.

Of course, any vaginal-American running for high office is instantly consigned to the scrutiny of the reductionist male gaze and the hypercritical female one. Hillary's cankles were as closely analyzed as her competence, just as Nancy Pelosi, perhaps the most powerful woman in government, is more famous for her pearls than her policies. What Clinton failed to realize is that when it comes to female candidates, accomplishment is a sideline; Americans, both men and women, want gossip. Can she really believe we're more intrigued by what bills she's helped pass than her relationship with Bill? Small wonder the woman lost.

Strong women have always threatened men and will continue to do so as long as women remain the primary caretakers of young children, the front-line enforcers of society's inhibiting agenda. What seems newly in evidence is how resistant women are, consciously or not, to putting one of their own in power. It was, after all, a woman who asked John McCain at a November campaign meeting the question that launched almost a million You Tube hits: "How do we beat the bitch?" Young women today appear less concerned about the limitations imposed on them with good reason; they can indeed become lawyers and doctors with greater ease than would have been imaginable in the 1950s. The attitude seems to be that as feminist goals have gotten closer -- no matter that women are still routinely paid less for their labor -- there's no need for the strident rhetoric or far-reaching vision of the women's movement.

But here's something to give pause: The special election issue of The New Yorker has five male writers commenting on its implications; there is only one woman featured in the issue (although she has two pieces, as if in compensation). Similarly, the November issues of Harper's and The Atlantic are top-heavy with male writers, notwithstanding the fact that The Atlantic cover touts a story headlined "Should Women Rule the World?" which turns out to be a rather cutesy review of a book by DeeDee Myers with that title, not a serious consideration of the question at all.

Meanwhile, a recent issue of OK! magazine promised to tell readers about Michelle Obama's style ("Michelle looks amazing in yellow") and "her date nights with Barack." You know, girly stuff, as befits our interest in a Grownup Girl. Can it be that Samuel Johnson, the 18th-century writer and wit, was not all that far from contemporary truth when he observed that when it came to women it was best to keep one's expectations low: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

If we keep our expectations low enough, the surprise is not that Hillary Clinton didn't become our first woman president but that she made such a strong showing in the primaries. A round of applause for the lady walking on her hind legs.

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