I’m sick of people complaining about Hillary Clinton. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t my first choice either. My political positions are more align with Bernie Sander’s positions than Hillary’s, but I am getting mad about the backlash she has received. Recently, I read an article about her not being a good role model to young girls, and it made me mad because it reminded me that quite a lot of the backlash against her has to do with her gender and not her political positions.
Now this particular article that listed three reasons why she is not a good role model for young girls doesn’t seem to have much connection with sexism, but it’s there. The author’s reasons are that Hillary lies and that she is mean, cold and calculating. The author accuses her of using her positions in the government to rise to a higher position. He accuses her of lying constantly about everything. The problem with these reasons, though are that you could accuse almost all of our presidents of doing these things. Most of them have lied and have not upheld their promises. Obama promised to close down Guantanamo Bay. It is still open. Bill Clinton lied about having an affair. Franklin Roosevelt did the same. Thomas Jefferson argued against slavery, while still owning slaves. All of our Founding Fathers were traitors to the English Crown. Teddy Roosevelt was known for being a self-important ass. He was also known for disobeying the Congress. Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court, so he could remove the Cherokee from their lands for an event we know as the Trail of Tears.
All of the Presidents we admire have down some shady things. Not all of them were liked. Most of them lied. Yet we still admire them because they were good leaders (except Andrew Jackson, of course). So, the question is why does Hillary deserve different treatment than these men? Why can’t she be a role model to young women for doing the exact same things as every other president? She is a determined individual who, despite so much backlash and insults, has kept going after what she wants. Don’t you want your daughters to be like that? I would. She may not be perfect, but neither is any of our other presidents.
There are also people who seem to think she is un-presidential. I know Donald Trump has called her loud and shrill, but hasn’t he heard his own voice? He’s loud. Bernie is loud. So why does it matter if Hillary is loud? It shouldn’t matter because her competition does the exact same thing, except they are men and men have the privilege of being the loudest voices in the room without being called shrill or bossy.
If you want to disagree with Hillary's policies, then that’s fine. If you want to jump down her throat over the fact she voted to invade Iraq, then do so. If you even want to talk about the email scandal, fine. Frankly, I’d be more OK with that than this conversation we seem to keep having about the fact that she lies, talks loudly and says anything to get elected. She’s a politician -- politicians lie, talk loudly and say anything to get elected. She isn’t that much different from the rest of them, except for the fact that she is not a man.
