@blatham,
I hear you, about gender.
I started a thread
a while back about whether or not America is really ready for a woman president
But I was really noticing last night the size and volume of the HYPE that's surrounding the 'first woman nominee'/'possible first woman president' narrative.
When Obama became president, there was this same kind of out-sized hype, and in a way it just makes me shake my head and wonder why this country can't get its collective head out of its ass. At the same time we were heralding Obama as a sign of the "post racial" America and patting our own backs so hard for having come so far on race in America, there were rising numbers of incidents of cops killing and brutalizing blacks. There was a growing gap between median income levels of black and white families. There was growth in the membership rolls of white supremacist groups.
At the same time we are patting ourselves on the backs for possibly becoming
not the first country mind you, but something like
the twenty-third country to elect a female head of state, women still get paid less than men for doing the same work. Women who get raped still have to worry about getting victim-blamed. Women still have to worry about surrendering legal dominion over their own bodies because of challenges to Roe V. Wade. Women still face double standards of being called "bitches" for being assertive, or "too ambitious" for wanting to work and have a family.
You will never see entire news stories devoted to the "speaking style" of a male candidate, or anything about his "style" at all, whether he's a slob or fashionable. Hillary has to hear about her pantsuits, or her "fake grandmother persona" or her laugh, or whether she is speaking too loudly.
We really need to stop patting ourselves on the backs so hard when we simply grow up
a little toward being a country that is actually living the spirit of the words about equality in our founding documents. I think we should stop crowing about how awesome we are every time we promote something other than a white male heterosexual. It would make much more sense to me if we all just thought to ourselves "It's about ******* time", and went about our business.