THE US GENDER DEBATE RAGES

As a duel citizen (Canadian, US) I take a lively interest in the presidential debates going on in the US.  And I have been especially interested in the debates on the Democratic side.  Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Socialist, seems to be gaining ground on Hilary Clinton.  As a result Clinton is desperately courting the women’s vote and has brought out some very important people to bolster her credentials on feminism.  Three of these important people are Madeleine Allbright, (former US Secretary of State) Gloria Steinem (renowned feminist writer, speaker) and most importantly, Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton (former US President). 

I rather liked Gloria Steinem until she said that the reason young women were going to vote for Bernie Sanders in the US presidential primaries was because “that’s where the boys are”.   Meaning that young women are primarily interested in meeting men and were not into serious political activism or even political discussion.  What kind of a feminist statement is that? But Madeleine Allbright’s statements were not only irritating but disgusting.  She said that there “was a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women”.  Isn’t that sweet?  The very idea that women should support other women no matter what these other women do or say is perverted.  In my opinion, kind of like Madeleine Allbright herself.  

When asked on a TV interview if Madeleine Allbright thought that the deaths of five hundred thousand Iraqi children was worth it in the invasion of Iraq for the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction”. Madeline Allbright said yes,  a hard choice but it was “worth it”.   This is the woman Hillary Clinton brings out to attest to her own “feminism”?  One who thinks the deaths of five hundred thousand Iraq children is okay but reserves “a special place in hell” for women who won’t vote for Hillary Clinton, who is a warmonger in her own right? Hillary Clinton thinks like the banking masters she serves, that most women in general are ignorant and love to be flattered and duped.  But to bring out Bill Clinton to scold the public in general for not supporting Hillary as he thinks they should, takes the bloody cake.

Bill Clinton was a practicing womanizer while President.  Okay, so what?  So that’s not a good way to go for a President of the US no matter how “exceptional” the country or the man.  This kind of scenario can wind up with the man thinking he can do just about anything he likes,  like having oral sex with a young intern in the Oval Office of the White House while talking on the phone with Members of Congress. What might have been the next thrill?  Oral sex on the roof of the white house?  The Rose Garden? During the annual children’s Easter Egg Hunt? The man is disgusting to me, not just for degrading the White House, a symbol of American pride, but for his political ties to the banking and Military Industrial Complex.

No, Bernie Sanders may be scruffy looking (as described by some media) but by sticking to his socialist principals he has emerged as embodying most of the principals of not just socialism, but some important aspects of feminism, too.

What is more feminist than striving for women’s equality in work space, in maternity leave, in the right to education and health care for all, for the right to control one’s own body, the right for all to have decent jobs and incomes, the right not to be slaves of debt and poor paying jobs that leave women destitute and vulnerable to prostitution and/or to submitting to domestic violence for the lack of other options to feed oneself and one’s children? My vote is for Bernie Sanders.