It’s so striking, but it epitomizes my problem with the invidious media rhetoric that has dominated this election season. STOP PITTING GENDER AGAINST RACE! Stop ignoring multiple realities and realize that 2008 is a year of change, and that these paradigms that pundits and political correspondents are perpetuating are old fashioned and irrelevant. It’s time to move forward.
Even now, as a 21-year-old woman who has almost completed her Bachelors degree in Women's Studies, my mind is blown. I've followed presidential politics since '92 (when I decided that Bill Clinton was way cuter than George Bush, and that's why I would vote for him in the elementary school mock-elections) and still am just thrilled to see that the two most viable contenders for the Democratic nomination are not white dudes. Thrilled. Obviously, one of these two individuals will get the nomination. I can't wait to see if they will pick one another for a running mate, or if they will go a bit more traditional (John Edwards?) to pull in moderate voters who may not be so crazy about breaking the mold completely.
On AlterNet, Jill Filipovic rounds up the last few weeks in feminists' endorsements of, disagreements about, and responses to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It's not a cat-fight, she concludes, it's a deeply reasoned and substantive conversation among women (and men) who are debating and re-considering the many different ways feminism is practiced and feminist priorities are set.
Here is her very nice (and quite moving) conclusion:
But contrary to some media hype, this is hardly an inter-feminist cat-fight. Instead, it's just one example of the myriad ways in which feminists -- like women, and like other voters -- are not a monolith.
We are, however, passionate, informed and politically active enough to make Clinton and Obama work for our votes. No matter who comes out on top tonight (if anyone), women's rights activists are emboldened enough to demand a presidency that is not simply "better than Bush" or even just pro-choice; we want a feminist presidency that will protect the rights and liberties of women in the United States and around the world. That means promoting economic justice and universal health care (including comprehensive reproductive care), aiding low-income families, ending the war in Iraq, requiring pay equity, and sponsoring programs like Head Start and affordable child care that make parenthood possible.
Who will get the feminist vote? Who knows. But the goal of a feminist presidency is something we can all agree on. At least for now.
Ever since Edwards dropped out of the race, a lot has been said about the feminist vote. We have the NY chapter of NOW telling us that the obvious feminist choice is Clinton, and anyone who suggests differently (even Senator Kennedy!) is betraying "us."
Yeah, but who's "us"? The loads and loads of news I have read or watched suggesting that a vote for Obama is a vote against feminism is irritating. To be honest, I don't even know which candidate I prefer yet, but telling me that I need to vote a certain way, based on certain demographic characteristics just to be a "good feminist" is a sure-fire way to alienate me. Sorry, I prefer to vote based on issues that are important to me, such as reproductive health, not on genitalia.
I just voted and I couldn't be more excited! I was shaking as I marked my candidate's name. This is civic engagement at its finest and I feel a real camaraderie with other people my age. We're NOT apathetic. We are a force to be reckoned with. I know I shouldn't be saying this but for the first time in my life, I feel like my vote finally counted. I grew up in Hawaii and it seemed like every election, the results were called before our polls even closed (aside from 2000, that took weeks, remember?). But now, as a proud resident of California, my vote actually mattered on Super Tuesday! I can't wait for the results to start pouring in.
Today's Super Tuesday media buffet gives me a chance to plug one of my very favorite things about living in New York City, which is our local public radio station, WNYC, and in specific the Brian Lehrer Show. I tell you, if I could implant a chip with Brian's show in my brain to listen to it all day long, I would. I think I'd like it better than listening to my subconscious, and I'd definitely be smarter. Right now, he's talking to New Yorkers in batches -- the undecided, Kennedy voters, up now, college students, next, Reagan and Bush voters, then immigrants, doing, as he calls it, the "informal, unofficial thoroughly unscientific Brian Lehrer Show exit poll." And beginning at 7pm EST, Brian will be anchoring WNYC's coverage of the returns.
Also, check out Women in Media & News director Jenn Pozner's interesting take on the media's treatment of John Edwards. Here's a snippet:
Faced with a candidate who was taking a hard line against the corruptive influence of corporate capital over political leadership and legislation, who was refusing to accept lobbyist money, and who was speaking out against media consolidation, all of a sudden it didn’t matter so much that Edwards had the ethnicity, the genitals, the bank account and the religious pedigree media look for when deciding whom to endorse. His anti-corporate, pro-populist rhetoric was far from the stuff of media-happy soundbites, so much so that corporate media were willing to partially suspend the race and gender biases that the industry usually uses to torpedo the political ambitions of women (of all ethnicites) and people of color.
Totally confused by the delegate count? Just realized that winning the popular vote isn't the same thing as winning the most delegates in a state? Never fear, TIME magazine is here, with a terrific piece on just this topic.
Here's a snippet:
It takes 2,025 convention delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, and about 1,700 will be awarded in the 22 states that hold contests on Tuesday. But come Wednesday morning, there will be many ways of looking at the results. Will the real winner be the candidate who wins the most delegates? The most votes? The most states? The most closely contested battlegrounds?
It's been a month since the Iowa caucus and I was foolish enough to believe I was over the hump - that the curse had been broken. It should have been. Yet, this morning while waking up to the Good Morning America crew, it all came flooding back.
The camera panned the crowd at Times Square. I realized a moment too late that the sign warriors were out in force. Even knowing what was coming, my feet refused to move away from the screen.
