The Clinton Campaign and What It Means

Bitch Ph.D. has a post up ( about an article in the New York Times) that pretty much sums up the frustration I feel whenever I talk about politics with any of my Obama-manic friends, or listen to the less-than-serious comments about politics that get made by the guys at my school.

The article really is a good one. The author asks whether Senator Clinton's campaign is showing America that we really have reached equality, or showing that we still have so, so, so far to go. I think it's the latter.

Senator Clinton held a rally at my school back in January, about a week before Super Tuesday. The next day, I walked into my math class, and most of my classmates were telling jokes about how Clinton should have stayed in the kitchen where she belongs. My teacher (who is male) stood there and listened, but didn't say anything.

I figured that the comments would stop once I got out of math, which has a pretty crazy group of kids, but then I went to engineering and it was the same thing. Lots of guys making lots of stupid "jokes". Lit was better, thanks to the female majority, but chem was the same thing. One of my friends, J., who I know would never, ever, make a joke like that himself, was cracking up, as were most of the other guys in the class (and some of the girls, sadly enough). My chem teacher, a woman, made them stop.

Neither of my afternoon classes were ones where any comments of the sort could be made. In the hallways for the entire day, though, there lots of littles jokes being told. None of the people telling the jokes meant to offend anyone. They knew that women could do anything that men could. I would guess that nearly all of them could name one woman--at the very least--who they have truly looked up to and respected.

But they kept telling their stupid little jokes and making their stupid little comments anyway. Because people were laughing. Teachers walking down the hallway didn't stop them. Girls near them didn't tell them to shut up and think about what they were saying. The guys themselves didn't stop and think. They didn't realize that what they were saying was that their mothers, their sisters, their teachers should only aspire to a life at home, catering to the needs of someone else.

If the situation were reversed, what would have been different about that situation? Say the younger and beloved candidate, the one that everyone looked up to and revered, was a woman. Say that the older candidate, the one with firm Washington ties and a household name, was black. Not one of those guys would have made fun of the black candidate's race. Never. And if they had, teachers would have told them to stop. Maybe they would have been sent to the office. None of their friends would have laughed, or sympathized with them when they got in trouble. It would have been totally different.

Why is that okay? Why is it acceptable for people to make fun of women? I'm not saying that racist comments should be okay, but why is there a difference? The whole idea behind affirmative action and education programs about Dr. King is that we want to correct wrongs that have been made. Well, women were denied the right to VOTE until 1920! We're now in the "post-feminist" period! And it's still okay for stupid kids to laugh at me because I'm offended? It's okay for them to tell me, a student at one of the best high schools in the freaking country, that the woman who I support and--and that point--hope will become the President belongs in the kitchen? And they can say that with no repercussions? They laugh and I tell them to stop and they laugh some more? Is that a sign of all the so-called progress we've made?

I don't see it.

That week, I wrote a post about how frustrated I was about the people who would cop out of any serious discussion by making some joke. I would end up angry and annoyed and feeling like an idiot when everyone around me laughed. That week was miserable for me. It was (I think) the busiest week of the year. I had two extracurriculars that I had major commitments for, plus all the usual tests and essays and projects. The last thing I needed was to be reminded that there are actually some people in this country who would never want me to have a career and be independent.

Progress towards equality is something that, as per the American Dream, we are all theoretically reaching for. But we seem to have reached a plateau. And I can't see how we're going to start moving up again. Check out the comments on the post. Someone pointed out that if women stand up for themselves, they get labeled as a "whiny woman", and, sadly, there aren't a whole lot of men at the national level who are going to stand up for us.

I don't really know what to say. There are so many things that bother me about the way women are treated today. I don't know if that stems from my status as one of seven girls in my engineering program, or if it's something I would notice and an all-girls' prep school. I just wish it were different. I hope it will be someday.