I wrote a few weeks back about understanding Hillary because I have a mother who is very competent, organized, hard-working, and sometimes misunderstood because of it. You know, the old saying where a hard-driving man is referred to as an efficient son of a bitch, while the equivalent woman is just a bitch? Yeah. That one always hit a little too close to home to be funny.
At any rate... Mom always raised me to believe that I could do whatever I put my mind to. And for the most part, she was right - if I wanted it badly enough, I'd figure out a way to get it. She was a first-wave feminist, and she raised me the same way - girls could do whatever guys could do, my gender didn't define my world, etc...
Which is why it was such a shock when I became an admin at one of my local BBSs and got a look behind the scenes at the "men-only forum". See, up until then, I didn't know that there were guys out there that hated me just because I was female. Worse, I didn't know that there were guys that didn't think of me as a person just because I was female - I was something to be conquered, or owned, or ignored if I wasn't at least a 6 - a second class citizen. It rocked my world a little - kind of like the first time I found out that there are people out there who deliberately kick puppies.
Then there was the time at work that I competed for a promotion. I was up against a guy who had been there less time than I had, who had less experience than I did, less commendations than I did - hell, he still came to me for advice when he couldn't figure things out... guess who got the promotion? And guess who was fired for looking at porn on his work computer not 6 month later.
But that was last century (ok, it was 1999 - but still, last century). I thought for sure things were getting better. Until this election season... Every single former President warned us that they could not see Trump in office. Almost every newspaper warned us. Her former opponents Bernie and President Obama both were actively begging people to vote for her. He told us with his own lips that he was a sexual assaulter (on top of all the other reasons not to vote for him, like unrealistic action plans and a hair trigger temper). He was endorsed by the fricking KKK... and Putin and Kim Jong Un! And yet... despite winning the popular vote, enough Americans voted to keep the woman out.
I know - there's going to be people saying "But she's corrupt! She's a criminal!" If you voted for the man who *actually* has two upcoming court dates, one for conspiracy to defraud and one for rape of a child, no, I don't believe that you were voting out of shock at her "criminal" email behavior (and don't even start with the "she's a killer" routine - if she really were killing off her political enemies, there's no way that Anthony Weiner would still be alive.) So yeah... it's the Bitch factor. And I'm back there crying at the knowledge that in this land that I love, that I worked my heart out for... I'm still a second-class citizen
No comments:
Post a Comment