Hillary Clinton’s fat ankles

Posted by Adrian Toll on May 7th, 2008

One theme that has run throughout the Democratic presidential primaries in the USA has been people’s pleasant amazement that, unless there’s a huge upset (remember George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004?), the next president of the USA will be either a woman or black.  This is celebrated as proof of how far the country has come in terms of racial and sexual equality.  But, certainly in terms of the political commentary in the media, the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama brings a further bitter twist to Yoko Ono’s comment that “woman is the nigger of the world” (later turned into a song by her and John Lennon - watch it, including a great introduction by Lennon, on YouTube).

Clinton’s appearance features heavily in the coverage of her campaign, for example Carl Bernstein’s disgust at her “thick ankles”.  If we’re talking about appearances, what about Obama’s fat lips?  Can you imagine the McCain audience question “How are we going to beat the bitch?”, to which he replied “good question!”, rephrased as “How are we going to beat that black bastard?”  There’s a whiff of suspicion that, admittedly along with other concerns about Clinton, the commentators would prefer a man to win, even if he is black.

Thirty eight years ago, in 1970, Robin Morgan was working for one of the leading counterculture newspapers in New York City, Rat.  Disgusted with the creeping sexism in the paper, she and her female colleagues took over the paper, and for the first female-only edition wrote a celebrated polemic, Goodbye To All That.  Goodbye To All That lamented how the New Left hierarchy, dominated by white men, had simply replaced one form of sexual repression for another, subtler version.  You can read the original article in full on the Fair Use Blog.

Until now she has resisted the temptation to write another version, but the treatment of Clinton by the media has enraged her enough to write Goodbye To All That (#2).  Goodbye To All That (#2) is another polemic, this time about the viciously misogynist media coverage that Clinton has had to endure.  Whether you’re for Clinton, Obama or even McCain, and despite some flaws (Morgan voting for Clinton because Morgan is a woman seems very dubious), this article is a sobering reminder of how far we haven’t come.

You can read the article in full on the Women’s Media Centre website.

“Well they say women shouldn’t be the president

Cause we go crazy from time to time

Well push my button baby

Here I come

Yeah look out baby

I’m at high tide”

Laurie Anderson – Beautiful Red Dress