Let's Not Go Without Mentioning

Read this article, regarding Clinton's exit of the primary:

In a culture that’s reached such a level of ostensible enlightenment as ours, calling a powerful woman “castrating” – however you choose to put it – ought to be seen as just as offensive as rubbing your fingers together to convey a love of gold coinage when you talk about a Jew. It’s nothing other than an expression of woman-hate — and the degree to which such expressions have flourished, in the mainstream media and in the loonier reaches of cyberspace this year, has added up to be a real national shame.

I'm not upset that Obama has taken the nomination, but I wish more people, both men and women, would take note of what raging sexism has limned this campaign from the day Hillary said, "Me, too." Sexism - linguistic, professional, casual, automatic - is so accepted in the culture today that a person is often shamed into silence when sexist jokes are told, when bowling shirts with nudie girls on them are ordered, when a woman is assumed to be dependent rather than independent, when her opinions are simply not considered.

Not long after the Ohio primary, which Hillary won, a male sort-of-friend in Ohio wrote me in a fit of rage. He said something to the effect that "These women want to eat men alive and see us all dead." That is as close to the original as I can recall, since I deleted his email, but come on, folks. Get with it.

From where does this irrational male terror arise? Can you please tell me when the last time was that a man was scared to walk to his car alone after midnight because he might be assaulted and raped by a gang of hormonal women? What made the male employees of the theater where I saw Sex and the City on opening night stare at all of us with eyes widened in shock and fear, when we were just hanging out together and having a good time?

Get. Over. It.

Later in the same article, writer Judith Warner criticizes the recent Sex and the City movie for disallowing women to be dumpy or bitchy, from what I can gather. It's a shame she disses what was an imperfect film but an excellent event. Her critique is a throwback to earlier feminism that rejected anything traditional (crafters, speak up!). It's ignorant to insist that a feminist can't also choose to dress fasionably or be open about her sex drive. And as to the insistence that no real, working woman over 35 can be slender... come off it. You get no prizes for not taking care of yourself, no matter how busy you are or how many demands are placed on your time.

Read the rest of the piece - just disregard the SATC bits.