Woman to Woman Bashing

As I read the article below I am reminded that we women insult each other by saying we will scream (and vote) for a good looking guy. We put down other women, say they are stupid, or angry, or shrill - or watch too many soap operas. It is hard for us to be nice to each other.

I have a faint suspicion that Hillary's current problem has to be related to this "woman to woman bashing" - it is very difficult for us to fully support a woman in a position of power - It is relatively easy to find fault in Hillary's campaign, her staff, her husband, and her pant suits. We are used to doing that to each other.

As for Patti Solis Doyle, what is wrong with watching soap operas? Aren't they all about the real world? (full disclosure - I watched every episode of Univision's Amor Real in 2004-2005 - I even developed a crush on Fernando Colunga)

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We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?

By Charlotte Allen

Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B01
Washington Post

Here's Agence France-Presse reporting on a rally for Sen. Barack Obama at the University of Maryland on Feb. 11: "He did not flinch when women screamed as he was in mid-sentence, and even broke off once to answer a female's cry of 'I love you, Obama!' with a reassuring 'I love you back.' " Women screamed? What was this, the Beatles tour of 1964? And when they weren't screaming, the fair-sex Obama fans who dominated the rally of 16,000 were saying things like: "Every time I hear him speak, I become more hopeful." Huh?

"Women 'Falling for Obama,' " the story's headline read. Elsewhere around the country, women were falling for the presidential candidate literally. Connecticut radio talk show host Jim Vicevich has counted five separate instances in which women fainted at Obama rallies since last September. And I thought such fainting was supposed to be a relic of the sexist past, when patriarchs forced their wives and daughters to lace themselves into corsets that cut off their oxygen.

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...Take Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. By all measures, she has run one of the worst -- and, yes, stupidest -- presidential races in recent history, marred by every stereotypical flaw of the female sex. As far as I'm concerned, she has proved that she can't debate -- viz. her televised one-on-one against Obama last Tuesday, which consisted largely of complaining that she had to answer questions first and putting the audience to sleep with minutiae about her health-coverage mandate. She has whined (via her aides) like the teacher's pet in grade school that the boys are ganging up on her when she's bested by male rivals. She has wept on the campaign trail, even though everyone knows that tears are the last refuge of losers. And she is tellingly dependent on her husband.

Then there's Clinton's nearly all-female staff, chosen for loyalty rather than, say, brains or political savvy. Clinton finally fired her daytime-soap-watching, self-styled "Latina queena" campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, known for burning through campaign money and for her open contempt for the "white boys" in the Clinton camp. But stupidly, she did it just in time to alienate the Hispanic voters she now desperately needs to win in Texas or Ohio to have any shot at the Democratic nomination...

for complete WP article click the title of this post