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While I'm a lukewarm supporter of Hillary Clinton -- at best -- I've always been creeped out by the weird hatred she's generated on the right. Weird accusations implying that she's a genetic freak who acts outside the inherent characteristics of her gender. Which means she's ambitious, outspoken, opinionated, and powerful. That is, the very qualities required of a US Senator.
Unfortunately, though, weird reactions to women have been too frequent this election cycle.
Media Matters has a couple of examples. Tucker Carlson had a field day with a Hillary Clinton nutcracker, saying of the Senator, "I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs." Drudge is a little more blunt when he twists Elizabeth Edwards words praising her husband's stand on women's issues to an accusation that Clinton is a "gender bender," behaving "like a man."
But at least that's the kind of idiotic attitudes you might expect from right-wing male pundits. But how to begin to explain the Washington Post's profile of Senator Clinton's cleavage that appeared in today's issue?
Vanessa notes the impossible dichotomy Clinton faces as she's simultaneously painted as a freakish shemale and a slutty cleavage bearer:
Why, oh why can't we have a hot, long-haired candidate with a "plunging neckline"? Oh right, because she would probably be deemed an immoral slut. Better dowdy than dirty, right? This just makes me fume.
Surely there's a space for Senator Clinton in our minds that's between dowdy and slutty, right?
The summer of 2008 promises to be stomach-turning if this is just the gentle breeze that presages the rhetorical storm of the general election. Folks, you ain't seen nuthin' yet!
And that's not even mentioning crap like this that's dredged up for Obama!
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