Hillary’s bad hair day
Hillary Clinton is traveling in Africa this week, although you wouldn’t know it by reading or watching the news. Until today that is. While in the DRC she was meeting with students at a Congolese University in Kinshasa and was asked through a translator what her husband Mr. Clinton’s opinion is about Chinese contracts with Congo. Clearly annoyed by the question, Mrs. Clinton responded harshly advising that if the young man asking the question would like to know her opinion, she would gladly give it but she would not talk about her husband. “My husband is not Secretary of State, I am.”
The translator actually got the question wrong and should have asked what President Obama thought, but by then the harm had been done. The mainstream media couldn’t have wished for a better sound bite than the one she gave them. The bitch is back…. Let’s get her! The lashing she has been given has been swift and brutal.
Radio and TV “news” shows this morning have been gleefully recounting the episode with comments like “She must be having her period.” “She’s just jealous, as Bill has been getting a lot of attention lately.” And my personal favorite, “she’s having a bad hair day.”
Really? We still haven’t moved past the belief that if a woman gets angry, shows emotion, tells people what she really thinks then she is having a “bad hair day”?
I must have been having a really bad hair day most of my life.
What I would like to know is why this has become news? Yes she was annoyed and if you ask me, she had more than enough reason to be. She is the Secretary of State, she was Senator of NY, she ran for President and she is being asked what her husband would think?! I’m impressed she stayed so calm.
What infuriates me even more is that the reason she was in the DRC has been so ignored by the media. What is going on in that country is a war that has taken the lives of over 5 million people in the last decade. It’s been named the world’s worst conflict since World War II. It is also a country described as the most dangerous place to be a woman or a young girl. It has the highest rate of rape and sexual assault of females in the world — rape is routinely used as a weapon of war.
I previously wrote about the horrors Congolese women endure and was heartened to hear Mrs. Clinton speak out about the devastation and express her understanding of the responsibility the US and the western world bears for this nightmare.
I guess reporting this is not nearly as much fun as bashing Hillary.
The Congo has been just one stop on Mrs. Clinton’s tour of Africa. On August 9th while in South Africa, she attended the National Women’s Day Dinner. Part of the speech she made that night was the following:
I am often awed by the history of the women’s struggle in my own country. And of course, now, when I look at South Africa and I see the role that women played in the struggle for freedom and liberation, and the roles that women are playing now in every aspect of South African life, it is gratifying, but it is not satisfying. Too many women in this country and across Africa and across the world, including in my country, are marginalized, are left behind, are denied the rights that every human being is entitled to …..we must remain committed to the full empowerment of women everywhere. And when we think about the poverty that grinds the spirit and the life out of so many women, we have to resolve to do our part, to make it easier for women to have the chance to live up to their God-given potential.
Yeah okay, but did you see how fat she looked in that pant suit she was wearing?
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Thank you! Its unbelievable. The right wing media is completely incapable of showing this woman any respect at all. Its disgusting.
This has nothing to do with the right-wing media. Having a hissy fit on an international stage because you are still threatened by, and jealous of, your husband’s popularity is not empowering to women. And inability to contain her shrillness and get around the awkward moment smoothly raises questions about Hillary’s qualifications as the top diplomat. Not because she’s a woman but because she handled the situation undiplomatically and made herself look bad. There’s no one else to blame.
Is Maureen Down left-wing enough for you? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/opinion/12dowd.html
The reality is that every single station jumped on this one. Both left and right. None of them did the story justice. Diplomats are people too… both shrill and composed at times. You can’t always sit with your legs crossed, hands in your lap and “take it like a man.” Sometimes you need to get off your ass and take it like a woman. And that’s what Hillary did. Right-wing, left-wing – who gives a shit? They all hate her. They just wait for moments like this so they can come out of their holes in the ground and bash her. Never mind the reason she was actually in the Congo. Never mind the countless women and CHILDREN that are being raped and mutilated on a daily basis. That’s not exciting news. That’s just reality. Hillary pitching a fit? Oh yeah, THAT’S news.
Oh and as far as Maureen DOWD goes – she happens to be a lovely woman. She and my father worked together at the NYT for many years. I’ll send her your regards. :)
Cheers!
Trixie, I appreciate your comment, but at no time did I mention right-wing media. I am referring to all the media -right and left – that continues to disrespect Mrs. Clinton for no other reason than she is a strong woman. The fact that you use the terms “hissy” and “shrillness” in your description of her shows that you are guilty of the same offence.
Mrs. Clinton may have acted “undiplomatically” in her response, but show me anyone who does not get emotional or ruffled after spending time with women and children who have been victims of the most unimaginable horrors. Believe me, that is not someone I want to have any part of running my country.
Just out of curiosity, did you know she was in the DRC when she made the comment? Did you (do you) know what was happening in that country? Had you heard anything about her visit to Africa at all before this, and about why she was there?
“Just out of curiosity, did you know she was in the DRC when she made the comment?”
Yes, I did.
“Did you (do you) know what was happening in that country?”
I do.
“Had you heard anything about her visit to Africa at all before this, and about why she was there?”
I had, indeed.
“The right-wing media” was mentioned by Jaclyn. My comment was addressed to her.
@Jaclyn: Maureen Down was a typo. I pressed the space bar while still typing the last letter of her name and my finger slipped to N. Since comments can’t be edited, typos remain, alas.
@Louise: I find it fascinating that you assume – on zero evidence – that I don’t use terms “shrill” and “hissy fit” when describing men losing it in public. Frankly, I think it’s quite sexist of you to automatically extrapolate that these terms apply only to women and that anyone who uses them must necessarily have a woman in mind.
Blaming Hillary’s jealousy of her husband’s popularity on her stress caused by dealing with victims of atrocities is mealy-mouthed, exalted nonsense. She’s quite simply no diplomat. She’s never had a diplomatic bone in her body. In her job as a secretary of state, it’s a big handicap.
“Diplomats are people too…” (again, Jaclyn): not in public, when they are representing their country and speak on behalf of their government, they are not. Their marital issues stay off-stage. She’s in Africa to deal with much bigger issues than her own personal life.
I never blamed her “jealousy” on anything. It’s the media (and you) calling her jealous.
Please… I’d love to see where you have called a man “shrill”.
Anyway, we can agree to disagree on Hillary’s diplomacy skills but I’d rather keep to the topic of why she was in the DRC in the first place and what can be done there. That was really the point I was trying to make.
I think the comments above have distracted away from the main theme of the original article – that the treatment Hillary received is more a feminist issue than a right- or left-wing media issue. Afterall, 60 Minutes, which may be deemed relatively bipartisan (at least by the standards of some news shows) continues to be a ratings topper, proving that impartial commentary is out there and being consumed in considerable quantity.
That said, I do find Hillary’s treatment unsurprising. Yes, she is a talented statesperson with an extensive CV. However, we are a nation whose celebration of women tends largely to be based on their ability to fall out of cars without underwear, lose weight after childbirth, promote cosmetic products; female aspiration, it seems, is geared more towards making the Playboy centrefold than holding senior political office.
For example, this week nearly four million viewers tuned in to watch a sixteen year old girl perform a quite lewd pole dance routine, on a programme aimed at children and young teenagers. Yes, 60 Minutes garnered more viewers than The Teen Choice Awards, but I’m guessing the demographic watching the former have already made their minds up about what they think of Hillary. Unfortunately, the demographic watching the latter are being given entirely different role models.
When that role model is a scantily clad and gyrating Miley Cyrus, it does not bode well for the future of women, or the treatment they receive from the hysterical, but popular and influential, media.
On the other hand, Miley will run for President at some point in the next thirty years. You heard it here first.
Hillary Clinton is completely unqualified to be a diplomat and he current job of Secretary of State was a bone thrown to her supporters to smooth a schism in the party.
Her fame today is wholly dependent on her marriage to the philandering ex-president. She was elected to office as a Senator because she was Clinton’s wife, made a run for the office of President on his coattails. Had she not married him, she would still be back in Arkansas haranguing the PTA and ripping off the pensions of seniors with petty real estate schemes.
Do you really think that her absence from the public eye was because she hurt her elbow? She is being marginalized by the Obama administration, probably because they are having “morning after” second thoughts about allowing her out of her office, much less the country.
Obama has no intention of allowing her to do anything important, he doesn’t want to share the limelight and I think that there are serious trust issues. She can’t be counted on to toe the party line.
She is done… through. Even riding her husband’s coat tails, she has gone as far as she can go.
The ‘Peter Principle’ in action.
Chloe – love your comment. Perfect and so true. Miley Cyrus makes me throw up in my mouth.