Tuesday, January 8, 2008

"Ah the remnants of sexism...Alive and well"

I have been feeling a little bit sorry for Hillary in the past few weeks. It seems like she has had her passion in the right place (though I am not sure that she's my candidate, I'm still undecided) and is running for President for the right reasons, yet she continually gets protesters and reporters heaping this nonsense on her.

At least in this case, I think that she handled it with grace. Can you imagine if people were protesting Obama with the same oppressive nonsense? I don't think it would fly. BUT telling a powerful national leader who happens to be a woman to "iron my shirts!", well that's just a quirky little news story.

Protesters ask Clinton to iron shirts

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press WriterTue Jan 8, 5:34 AM ET

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign stop was interrupted Monday when two men stood in the crowd and began screaming, "Iron my shirt!" during one of her final appearances before the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton, a former first lady running to become the nation's first female president, laughed at the seemingly sexist protest that suggested a woman's place is doing the laundry and not running the country.

"Ah, the remnants of sexism — alive and well," Clinton said to applause in a school auditorium.

The two men were removed from the hall after raising a pair of signs that said, "Iron my shirt!" They also shouted the same slogan.

"Can we turn the lights on? It's awfully dark," Clinton said, cueing the lights to come and police to come forward to take the men away.

The overflow crowd burst into applause and some began shouting, "Iron my shirt" as the two were taken from the hall.

"As I think has been abundantly demonstrated, I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling," she said.

Clinton later joked about the incident as she invited questions.

"If there's anyone left in the auditorium who wants to learn how to iron a shirt, I'll talk about that," she said with a smile.

Clinton placed a disappointing third place in Iowa's caucuses last week and faces a tough challenge in Tuesday's primary from Barack Obama, who leads her with just one day remaining.

1 comment:

KelseyP said...

I've felt especially bad for Hillary lately, especially in light of this "tearing up" hysteria that's been going around for a couple of days. The poor woman has been under so much scrutiny for being a woman, and now when she got even a hint of a tear in her eye they attack her for being "too weak". Whatever.

I haven't decided if she's my candidate or not yet, but I do know these are great running examples of sexism being alive and well.

And if I haven't said it well enough, maybe Gloria Steinem can:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08steinem.html