One of the hallmarks of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new book, “What Happened” was Clinton’s perception that women abandoned her and/or failed to show up adequately on Election Day. But that perception in and of itself wouldn’t really be a misogynist statement—what Clinton actually ascribes this supposed lack of solidarity on the part of American white women to “tremendous pressure” from the white men in their lives. Which might be true to some extent, considering more than half of white women who voted last November voted for Donald Trump, but isn’t it a bit infantilizing, if not paternalistic, to equate conservative women voters with women who voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary? Clinton thinks she’s entitled to the votes of a large group of people, and there are a few events in particular that show Clinton is essentially a misogynist of a different kind—the white neoliberal variant. I’m not going to endlessly discuss the implications of Clinton’s statement, I spent enough time in 2016 on such things, but I’m going to provide the evidence necessary for you to come to your own conclusions on how Hillary Clinton thinks of herself in relation to the average woman in the United States.
1. Nina Turner is ostracized from the Democratic Party; Clinton dismisses Ashley Williams
Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner has been all but blacklisted from participation in the Democratic Party ever since she switched her endorsement of Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders during the primary, and part of the backlash resulted in her being barred from speaking at the convention. Since then, she’s moved on to the presidency of Our Revolution, a PAC focusing on continuing the goals of the Sanders campaign. It could be said that Clinton’s ideological disagreement with Turner may warrant such dismissal, but her behavior towards another young African-American woman suggests a distinct paternalism towards Black women. In February of 2016, Ashley Williams confronted Clinton at a private speaking event (that she paid a ticket for) and asked her why she referred to Black youth, men in particular, as “superpredators” in 1996. Clinton did not answer her question and Williams was ejected out of the event by Secret Service members.
2. The Passion of Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem
One of the more infamous moments in the Clinton campaign that showed the underlying misogyny behind Clinton’s elitism was when Madeline Albright condemned women who didn’t support Clinton, an implicit accusation of betrayal behind her “special place in hell” quote. Moreover, Steinem, a well-known second wave feminist explicitly said to Bill Maher that women were voting for Bernie because of his male supporters. It’s clear to these so-called radical feminists that their feminism is restricting to a nominal representation at the top of imperial power structures.
3. Clinton’s feminism is a feminism of the bourgeois and the white elite in Amerika.
I’ve said time and time again how Clinton’s policies for young women rarely include Black, Asian, and Latina women domestically, and how her foreign policy disproportionately disenfranchises women abroad by embroiling them in our wars against democratically-elected governments. Clinton supported a regime in Honduras that was responsible for murdering indigenous leaders and environmental activists and has never been held accountable for her backing the government. It’s clear to me that Clinton’s politics of equality for women don’t extend beyond the border; in fact, women are disposable if it serves her imperial agenda.
4. Hillary Clinton Trivialized a Rape Case
Clinton served as a prosecutor in the 1970s, and ruthlessly attacked the 12-year old defendant. Though she was assigned to the case against her will, her performance and reaction to the case when asked about it afterwards suggests a gleeful participation in rape culture. I have a hard time believing that Clinton has progressed much since then in this aspect of her politics.
I’m done re-litigating the 2016 Democratic primary. I hate the political theater of electoralism. The real work of pressuring our politicians to do what is necessary to aid the marginalized and liberate the poor is not done by reading books written for the ego of out-of-touch politicians like Hillary Clinton. But as much as I hate the drama, fighting against revisions of history that serve the Amerikan elite is more important. You need to understand that Hillary Clinton is only a feminist when it suits her, and what little feminism she has is deployed in service of bourgeois white women.
