Hillary Rodham Clinton supported Bill Clinton when Republicans went after him for sexually abusing a woman who worked for him.
I am only three and a half years younger than HRC. I remember what it was like getting a job back during the day when I was a teenager and a young woman. I was supposed to look attractive and sweet and do what my boss told me to. But not too attractive and sweet. Men were weak when it came to sex. If you wear your skirt too short or your sweater too tight, maybe you are asking for it. Maybe he just can’t help himself. Maybe his wife is frigid and is not taking care of his needs. Who knows what goes on in their marriage? I remember what it felt like when too many people considered women employees fair game for their bosses. I did not like that feeling at all. I would have expected any other woman my age or older to remember that feeling and to be repulsed by any woman who supported any man who acted that way towards his subordinates since the US Supreme Court helped clarify that coerced penetration for sexual gratification is rape, regardless of the type of coercion, or of the orifice penetrated, or the instrument used for penetration. And Hillary Rodham Clinton is a lawyer.
I have held off attacking Hillary Rodham Clinton, because we do not want to give Republicans ammunition in the General Election. Never mind that I can never see voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton for President. Never mind that just the thought of voting for someone who actively supports a sexual predator like William Clinton makes me physically sick to my stomach. Never mind that it is no secret from anyone that William Clinton made sexual advances toward more than one woman that worked for him. Never mind that it is no secret that William Clinton is a sexual predator, and that Hillary Rodham Clinton has never repudiated behavior like her husband’s. Not even without mentioning his name, or particulars of his actions.
We live in a culture that still accepts that women get raped by men. We live in a culture that still frequently blames the woman who gets raped, not the man who commits the rape. We have Republicans who claim that if a woman gets pregnant when she is raped, then the baby is a gift from God! Some gift. Women die from pregnancies. If the rapist’s baby kills the woman carrying that baby, is that supposed to be accepted as God’s punishment for the woman? Hell, no!
And when it is acceptable for a boss to coerce the women who work for him into sex, then the only choice a woman has besides starvation is prostitution. If she chooses a man who can support her adequately without her working outside the home, then the prostitution is called marriage, if she is lucky. Or she can nominally work at a job outside the home at considerably less than a man makes for doing the same work, plus provide sex for her boss and anybody else her boss wants her to provide sex for. Or she can be honest about what she is doing, and engage in the most lucrative prostitution she can, and maybe even save up enough to retire one day without having to worry about starving in old age. But as long as we live in a culture where the Bill Clintons of the world are not held accountable for their predatory behavior, the only choice a woman has is what type of a victim she will be.
That is not acceptable to me.
That is not acceptable to at least a few other people, men and women, Democratic, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, and other Third Party supporters. I do not want a Republican in the White House. I also do not want anybody in the White House who thinks that raping women is acceptable, even if the rape is not vaginal. Even if the rape is only coerced without the use of physical force. Any penetration, however slight, of any orifice, for sexual gratification,without freely given (not coerced) consent, constitutes the offense of rape. I am not a lawyer. I do not need to be a lawyer to know that I can never support Hillary Rodham Clinton for President of the United States unless she is able to say that it is never acceptable for any person to rape another human being, whatever type of penetration is involved, and whatever lack of freely given consent is involved. If Hillary Rodham Clinton was willing to say that rape of another human being is never acceptable, she would have said it by now. Instead, she chose to stand by her man, a man that has coerced and attempted to coerce sex acts from multiple subordinates.
How can any woman support candidate for President who actively supports a sexual predator, a rapist? How can anyone who has ever loved a woman support a candidate for President who actively supports a sexual predator like Bill Clinton? Why is it taboo to talk about such an obvious obstacle to nominating and electing Hillary Rodham Clinton to the White House? Are the majority of Democrats still okay with rich white men raping women? Do they think that a woman who supports a husband with a history of sexually preying on his subordinates can still be seen as an advocate for women’s rights? What right is more important to a woman than the right to say who does and does not get to penetrate her body for sexual gratification without fear of being fired, demoted, blacklisted, or worse?
The thing that pushed me over the edge was another diarist who had written an excellent diary, but made a comment in the comment section that he thought what went on within the Clinton’s marriage was and should be off limits.
If Bill Clinton had an affair with another head of state, or with a prominent movie star or athlete, or with a business tycoon, or someone else of similar stature to his own, then that might be only Hillary’s business. But everybody that I have heard about as sexually associated with Bill Clinton was a subordinate. That makes Bill Clinton a sexual predator, and that makes it the business of any woman who has ever had to hold a job working for a man, and any woman who might ever have to hold a job working for a man, and every person who loves a woman who might ever have to hold a job working for a man. Does a woman have to continue to wonder every day she goes to work, is my boss going to fire me today if I do not gratify him sexually? Or if I don’t give him a good enough blow job? Or if my breasts aren’t perky enough to turn him on anymore? Is this how women should expect to be treated in 2016? I was horrified when I was a teenager and realized that I was expected to dodge this sort of advances as a grown woman who wanted to work. I was determined to work on changing this situation. So were many of my peers, and we did largely change this situation. But there are strong forces in the Republican party working to erode those gains.
And now the Democratic party thinks I should support Hillary Rodham Clinton, who supported William Clinton when he was caught preying on his subordinates. I should support Hillary Rodham Clinton for the highest office in the country as a consolation prize for being silent about the fact that her husband is a sexual predator, and consider HRC such a strong advocate for women’s rights. No thank you — a strong advocate for women’s rights opposes rape, even when her own husband is the rapist.
Helen Reddy was right that “We know too much to go back to pretend!”
Black Lives Matter.
A woman’s right to work without being raped also matters.
No compromise on either issue. Killing blacks is wrong. Raping women is wrong. Advocating killing blacks or raping women should disqualify you from being President of the United States. Do not vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton unless she repudiates coerced sex. Talk about it. Spread the word.