"Ultimate Betrayal?" NOW-NY Promotes Sexist Stereotypes
January 29, 2008
he won among white women as well as black -- as did 35 percent of women in Iowa, 34 percent in New Hampshire and 38 percent in Nevada?
The answer is simple: it isn't. NOW-NY has a preferred candidate in Hillary Clinton, as they have every right to do, and instead of honestly endorsing that candidate -- and perhaps making a substantive argument about why women should support Clinton -- they claim to speak on behalf of all "women" as if they're biological automatons genetically pre-programmed to support a female candidate regardless of whether they prefer that candidate's policies.
I suppose we should be proud to be lumped together with Teddy Kennedy and Democracy for America, but there's little reason to be joyful about the ugly identity politics that have marked this primary season.
If you haven't yet seen it, this is the response -- "unhinged" is not an inappropriate adjective to use in this case -- to Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama by the New York chapter of the National Organization of Women. This is not a hoax -- its authenticity was confirmed by NOW-NY president Marcia Pappas, who may have been its author. I've added a few comments …
Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary Clinton's opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard.Consider how arrogant an organization has to be to claim to speak for 51 percent of the country like this. My question for NOW-NY is simple: how is Kennedy's endorsement a betrayal of "women" when 54 percent of women in South Carolina voted for Obama --
The answer is simple: it isn't. NOW-NY has a preferred candidate in Hillary Clinton, as they have every right to do, and instead of honestly endorsing that candidate -- and perhaps making a substantive argument about why women should support Clinton -- they claim to speak on behalf of all "women" as if they're biological automatons genetically pre-programmed to support a female candidate regardless of whether they prefer that candidate's policies.
