::::::::
John Edwards took what appeared to be a calculated gamble in the ABC New Hampshire debate this past Saturday night, in attacking Hillary Clinton. He raised his voice, and pointed his finger menacingly, declaring her to be the "forces of the status quo." I'm not a Hillary supporter, but I thought Edwards went way over the line.
First, while Hillary may be more of a centrist than either Edwards or Obama, she is no George W. Bush. And, as a fellow Democrat, I believe Edwards owes her more than a caricature.
Second, the outburst, and Hillary's angry response, painted a painful picture of male youth vs. female aging. Against the backdrop of Hillary's relative fatigue, the exchange smacked of sexism-laced ageism. You know, the kind that discounts middle-aged women as over the hill, but exalts middle-aged men as distinguished. The kind of dynamic that allows an nearly elderly Sean Connery to be paired with a twenty-something movie love interest.
While some faulted Hillary for her anger, I think it was entirely justified. Before the exchange, Hillary had been criticized as not showing enough human emotion. I agreed with some of that criticism. But to pounce on her now as an "angry feminist," as one Jack Cafferty viewer did, reminds me of a passage in Marilyn French's The War Against Women:
“Women are deviant if they are assertive, or if they are meek and subservient; if they do not devote themselves utterly to their husbands and children, or if they selflessly sacrificed themselves to them. Society condemns women for being ambitious, or for lacking ambition; for being rich or poor, fat or thin, with careers or without them.”
