I know I haven't written for ages. I'm really just writing this for myself. But I'm so angry at this Op-Ed piece by Gloria Steinem, and I can't figure out how to comment directly to it, so here I am at my own corner of the rant-and-rave universe.
Gloria Steinem has always been a hero for me, but what she wrote today was so narrow and bitter, and seemed directed just at people like me. She started off her opinion piece by saying that a woman who had Barack Obama's life could never make it to where he was. What kind of statement is that? Who, looking at Obama's life story, would predict that he himself could make it to where he is? The whole mystery about him, the whole thing that's making Clinton supporters freak out, is that completely undefinable quantity and quality: charisma. On top of that, Clinton just doesn't inspire people to think she could really make anything different, considering what she's already done and who she's connected to. I know it's not fair. I've wanted a woman in the White House my entire life. But I hear stories of things happening elsewhere in the world: of the things government is capable of. Actual rehabilitation in prisons. A fairer share of resources and wealth. Government support for its national culture, aka arts and education!!! Obama isn't the only candidate I could see somehow making those things happen here. I bet Kucinich would do a lot more, and Richardson too. But not Clinton. And that doesn't make me any less of a feminist. It makes me so so pissed that someone like Steinem would suggest that. I don't vote with my vagina. I vote with my brain.
It's this sentence in particular that makes my blood boil:
But what worries me is that he is seen as unifying by his race while she is seen as divisive by her sex.
Followed by this a few sentences later:
What worries me is that some women, perhaps especially younger ones, hope to deny or escape the sexual caste system; thus Iowa women over 50 and 60, who disproportionately supported Senator Clinton, proved once again that women are the one group that grows more radical with age.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Supporting Clinton makes you more radical because she's a lady??? Do you know how much I loved Geraldine Ferraro when I was a little girl because of the historic importance of her candidacy? I was five. I drew pictures of brides and grooms with the brides literally 4 times larger than the grooms. Then the groom's top hat would threaten to compete with the bride's height, and I'd give the bride an extra headdress just so she would tower over him even more. So now I'm a total subservient, pregnant-in-the-kitchen, housewifey, non-feminist because I don't support Clinton? Her policies are fine. She's been a good Senator. But I'd rather be idealistic, and vote for someone I actually want in the White House, who I could actually imagine maybe, possibly turning things upside-down, at least the things that need to get flipped.
I was touched when I saw the footage of Clinton getting emotional. The primaries are f*cking brutal, and anyone would be spent and wrecked by that much travel and exertion. She obviously wants to be president and was bummed when Iowa dissed her. That doesn't mean I'm going to vote for her. I knew she was human before. It's not like I'm like, "OMG! She's real!"
Anyway.
Apparently Obama is appearing at a rally in Jersey City tomorrow. He's like, Jersey City's a must-win, I'm going there straight after NH!!! I don't think I can make it, but I'd like to. Hearing Howard Dean speak 4 years ago was a goosebump-filled experience. I got all over that bandwagon, writing letters etc. Then super disilliusioned when the whole country tossed him out because of an improper scream. So it goes in the U S and A. Gotta be smooth to win. I got enthusiastic and idealistic again this time around. It's cool that Clinton won NH. But remarks like this from her: "his free ride's got to end sometime," and this piece by Steinem bring up the question that was in my mind after Dean's rise promise proved a fantasy, after I felt like fool for getting involved in his campaign: is it worth it?