Far From Victory

Now that Hillary Clinton has endorsed Barack Obama and the Democrats have solidified the top slot on their November ticket, much attention is finally being paid to Clinton's treatment as a female on the presidential campaign trail. The verdict of all this scrutiny is, appropriately, a condemnation of both the American media and the American people.

Judith Warner, a consistently insightful guest columnist at the New York Times, blogged last week in “Women in Charge, Women Who Charge” that Clinton's candidacy brought into stark relief the pervasive discrimination and hatred aimed at women today that far too often goes unchecked. As many observers, including Katie Couric, note, had Obama faced the racial equivalents of the heckling and mocking protests Clinton endured, this country would have been outraged and ashamed and launched into cathartic introspection.

Sexism is alive and well in America. It permeates every part of society, and what we see in the media is only a reflection of what occurs daily. Not only in harassment in the workplace (which was made more difficult to combat by a November 2006 6th Circuit Court decision) or violence aimed at women (one out of every five women in the U.S. has been raped), but also in the words and images we allow women to be referred to by and the burden we disproportionately place on our girls to maintain their chastity.

For years, there have been those who have claimed victory in the feminist fight for equality. And though we have clearly made great strides, there is something deeper that remains elusive. The attitudes that prevail, the constricting societal classifications of what it means to be female, and the passive acceptance of discriminatory words and actions are all poisonous roadblocks in women’s quest for full actualization and equal status. That we sat on our couches and watched disgusting media attacks on Clinton that were deeply personal and far removed from any campaign saliency without instinctively jumping up to call the news networks in indignant fury makes us all culpable.

Women are the majority of the population and of the vote, but it seems we are behaving like an incidental minority, asking, “Please, sir, may I have some more?”

Are women held hostage by the ever-increasing objectification of them by society? By the burden that comes with the joy of being the gender that gives birth? Or by the legacy of millennia of stark divisions of labor? Can we break through the tough patina of the status quo? Representative Carolyn Maloney’s new book, Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, addresses just how far women have left to go before we can truly declare victory and why this is a fight that is not only imperative for women and society today, but for the substantive quality of life for our daughters as well.

Now that Clinton is available fodder no more, the media is gearing up for an anticipated flurry of attacks on Michelle Obama. We all must demand of our leaders and of ourselves intolerance for misogyny wherever it may arise, and particularly in the unrepentant media. If we do not actively confront it, what are we inadvertently condoning and even encouraging? What are we saying to our women and to our daughters?

What are we saying to ourselves?