Camille Paglia, who lives in Philadelphia, defines herself as a feminist, is a social critic, columnist for Salon and author of Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson.
In yesterday's UK Telegraph, she wrote Why women shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton.
As a feminist, her arguments were of interest to me, since I have never felt that Senator Clinton is a feminist, nor do I believe that as a feminist I must vote for a person simply because of their gender.
She opens with:
Is Hillary Clinton the saviour of feminism? Or its albatross, dragging feminism backwards under a weary weight of old-guard victimology and male-bashing?
The scrum is on! Feminist grand panjandrums like Gloria Steinem have leapt back into the arena, while younger women have seized the feminist banner to proclaim Hillary the messianic Wonder Woman, destined to smash the glass ceiling of the presidency.
All women, on pain of excommunication from the feminist claque, must now support Hillary. Never mind her spotty record or her naked political expediency. Any woman with the temerity to endorse Barack Obama (as I do) is condemned as a "traitor" to her sex. "Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life," trumpeted Steinem earlier this year in an article promoting Hillary in the New York Times. Barriers of race, class or economics are waved away as mere frippery.
Paglia, in endorsing Barack Obama, echoes many of the thoughts and discussions I have had with colleagues and students in the Women's Studies Department where I teach.
She joins a long list of feminists who have an online petition supporting Barack: Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama
Many women support Clinton because they have long awaited the day when a woman is finally in the Oval office. They resist looking at her flaws, and persist in equating "female" with "feminist".
Paglia continues:
Hillary's voter base consists of middle-aged to elderly white women who identify with her caustic, stubborn, bulldog resilience. Humiliated and upstaged by her philandering husband, Hillary is the champion of an army of women who were stymied, betrayed or outmanoeuvred by men. Over the past year, whenever her cowed male opponents mildly rebutted Hillary in debate, her campaign jumped into über-feminist mode: male bullies, they screeched, "ganging up" on a helpless damsel.
Losing ground with other core groups - notably her own cohort of upper-middle-class, baby-boom career woman - Hillary played the gender card to the max. When polling showed she had seemed too harsh to the caucus-goers of Iowa, she rolled out teary eyes for New Hampshire, which handed her a primary victory. Hillary will scratch, claw, and morph through every gender trick if it rakes in votes.
Obama, whose opponents often accuse him of "playing the race card" when simply defending against racism cannot raise his voice against the use of the gender card by Clinton, for obvious reasons.
Paglia has no such restrictions, and states her case forcefully.
Though she would specialise in women's and children's issues, Hillary's public statements have often betrayed an ambivalence about women who chose a non-feminist path. "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies," she sneered during Bill's 1992 presidential campaign. Then, defending her husband against the claims of a 12-year affair by Gennifer Flowers, Hillary snapped: "I'm not sittin' here like some little woman, standing by my man like Tammy Wynette" - a sally that boomeranged when Hillary had to make an abject apology. The irony is that Hillary had offended the very group of stoical, put-upon, working-class women who are now proving to be her staunchest supporters.
She does not condone the sexist language used to portray Hillary, but questions why they are thrown at her and not other women in office:
Genuinely disturbing are the caricatures of Hillary (called "Hitlery" or "the Hildebeast" on the web) that rarely accrue to male candidates: she's portrayed as a hectoring nag, a witch on a broomstick, or a castrating bitch. But if such images were truly generated by simple fear of female power, we would expect to find them around other women politicians too, such as the current female Speaker of the House.
I am sick and tired of being accused of "anti-feminism" when I tell friends from my generation, long time members of the movement for Women's Liberation that I am voting for and working for Obama. They see her "advancing the struggle". I see her as setting back the feminist agenda.
My brand of feminism does not endorse the use of racism as a tool, nor is feminism an "anti-male" stance. Anti-patriarchy yes. Anti-men - No.
Paglia concludes:
Hillary's recent remarks about politics as a "boys' club" resistant to uppity women was sheer demagoguery. By progressing farther than any woman presidential candidate, she has become a role model for future aspirants. But by attaching herself so blatantly to anti-male rhetoric - particularly in view of her debt to her husband - she is espousing a retrograde brand of feminism no longer applicable to the US.
If Hillary loses, batten the hatches against a mass resurrection of paranoid, paleo-feminist martyrs, counting their wounds and wailing at the blood-red moon.
I know that there are other feminists here on Dkos who feel the same way.
Would love to hear from you.
