Politics is already LOADED with sexism. Since the earliest forms of politics you can bet a lot of the job has involved ritual contests over "manhood." Richard Nixon wanted the Republican party to tap into the "angry white male" crowd way back in the civil rights movement by trying to build a "blue collar man" image around a bunch of rich guys, and now if you believe the media politicians are the primary owners of Texas horse ranches. 
So how would this play out with Hilary Clinton? I don't like her, but she will be heavily involved in the primaries at least, and it's going to be interesting to see what the campaigns, media, and bloggers are going to do.
Will gender politics actually be an advantage for her, allowing her to avoid some of the absurd posturing and aspersions on masculinity, or will she simply be at a disadvantage in the "manhood" contest while also receiving insults about non-femininity at the same time?
I mean really, that's ridiculous. Apparently having power makes her a "nutcracker."
This will probably be extremely dependent on each audience. Maybe it's not going to have much of an influence because *ahem* people who would actually listen to it are going to be voting Republican anyway.
Sorry Vec, I don't like Hillary. No sir, not one bit. Between her little orgy with wacko jacko on hot coffee and calling for bans my violent video games... No, Hillary bad.
~Tobe
Hilary should scare the piss out of any normal, rationally thinking person...
She's the devil, she is!
I don't like Hillary, but that's not the point.
We're gamers. She's our enemy. She's on Jack Thompson's side! No one should be on his side! NO ONE!
o.o I don't even get what they mean by calling her a "nutcracker"... now, I don't know much about Hillary Clinton, though then again I don't really know much about recent American politics anyway... (note that I said recent) and actually I haven't even been following Canadian politics recently, but that aside...
Vec, I noticed that within what you said about why it might be an advange for her you didn't mention the possible opportunity (not necessarily saying that she would) to "play the sexism card" (assuming the same phrase is used for sexism as for racism) and I think that's another thing to take into account. I remember once on NationStates Forums when one person (I'll just call them "A" for reference) was talking about the term "feminazi", and then someone else (I'll call them "B") repeatedly insisted that A was sexist, against what A was saying, despite A not even making actually sexist comments (not like B had more say as to what A was thinking than A himself/herself did anyway) and B didn't get rebutalled as much as A did...
Now I'm NOT implying that sexism is over, just that it seems like people often see it where it probably isn't which might give Hillary Clinton an advantage. Granted, I suppose other people don't see it where it is, so I guess that'd be another potential disadvantage for Hillary. Then again, since I don't know much about recent American politics I guess I wouldn't know what the implications would be for her anyway, but I just wanted to mention the "playing the sexism card" idea...
And another thing, if we're talking about gender politics with the specific example of a possible first female president of the US, I think a good person to make analogies about would be Margaret Thatcher since she was the first female prime minister of Britain.
EDIT: And what's with all the "we're gamers so she's our enemy" stuff? Even I'm not so diehard a gamer as to let that take priority over other issues...
*can't resist* SOUTH PARK FOR HILL-DOG!
I'm probably not going to vote for her, but even I'm kinda surprised by all this outpouring of loathing against her just because of a few stray press conferences. Really, if you're that terrified of her "banning video games", the best thing you can do is get her out of congress =P.
And Vec, I wouldn't worry too much about this. It's just a joke. I could do a quick google search and find probably five dolls denigrating Bush, and if it were still 2004, Kerry as well. It comes with the territory, and like you said, I really don't think this will influence anyone whose vote isn't already decided.
Nothing about her becoming president could end well.
I think she's an amazing person. I met her personally a few months ago and listened to her speak at the Young Women's National Leadership Conference that Feminist Majority Foundation sponsored. I can't remember every element of her speech, but I do remember a series of statements she made near the end of it. "If you are an uninsured person in this country, you are invisible", "If you are an indigenous person in this country, you are invisible", "If you are poor in this country, you are invisible" etc.
With the exception of the video game thing (which in my opinion seems incredibly trivial in comparison to all of the ACTUAL, MEANINGFUL problems we have in this world and in the United States) I've never heard any reason for her to be disliked that made sense to me or did anything to confirm for me that the majority of individuals are still intimidated/distrusting of a woman with power and resolve.
Well, I was living in New York in 2000 and I didn't like the way she ran her campaign. She used her status as the First Lady to maintain such a huge media presence that she overpowered any mention of the other candidate, Rick Lazio. Issues never entered into the picture. Everyone in the state knew Hilary, as opposed to the member of the house of representatives from Suffolk County. She had celebrities like Ben Afflek come into the state and campaign for her and had a gigantic huge war-chest of funds. It was the equivalent of using a thermonuclear bomb to scratch an itch.
Not to mention the charge at the time that she was just using the New York Senator's office as a stepping stone to the presidency turned out to be absolutely true. Her sophomore term isn't even over and she's running for president. New York's interests would have been much better served by one of our own.
How is it uncommon to use a seat in Congress in a highly populated state as a stepping stone for presidency?
Well I'm glad I don't have TV anymore if I can't judge a candidate by their press conferences.
Wait... did I post that in MG by mistake?
~Tobe
It's not so much the video games themselves as much as it is the question that should arise in EVERYONE'S mind: do you really want someone that goes around agreeing with Whacko Jacko for president?
I didn't think Clinton went as far as THAT nutcase. She's a *edit* not a complete loon like Thompson.
Any case I won't vote for someone that places blame for kiddies getting their paws on 18+ games on the games and not the parents/resellers.
~Tobe
Well I believe the last person to do it in New York was Robert F. Kennedy in the 60's. Irregardless, whether it's common or not doesn't make it right.
Just what good has she done to deserve being a top runner for the Democratic nomination?
She married Bill Clinton.
More liked she hasn't divorced his ass.
But they are indifferent toward each other <3
Her association with Jack Thompson is significant. Jack Thompson is a longtime enemy of the first amendment, and was targeting music before he targeted games. Hilary Clinton also introduced legislation to prosecute flag-burning. In her defense, it was probably a political ploy to make it easier for Democrats to vote against the Republican amendment, and it wasn't passed, but she did introduce it.
And yes, what has she done besides marry Bill Clinton? Obviously George W. Bush wouldn't have come close to the presidency or even the nomination without name recognition and the media calling him a front-runner before the race even started. Hilary Clinton is riding basically the same wave.
Whenever she answers a question it's an extremely crafted political response that leans to a kind of illogical median between Democrat and Republican. It shows experience, but having campaign finesse is not what I consider a qualification. The more liberal the better.
I don't think sexism is as big an issue as people think it is. I will say, however, that she will use the gender card. a lot. FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT PMG *vote without really caring for her politics*
Personally, I don't really take age or sex into account for much. If she's a woman, good for her - I want to hear about what she's going to do to this country, not what [fill in the blank!].
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Jack Thompson is a longtime enemy of the first amendment
I'd say the same applies to people who associate the US with Christianity (given how the first 10 words of the first amendment are "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") but that doesn't seem to stop them. (Eg. George W. Bush's re-election; not to mention how I've heard of polls that say most Americans wouldn't be willing to vote for an Atheist president)
Quote:
The more liberal the better.
o.o That looks like a rather simplistic approach. It seems like labels such as "liberal" imply that certain specific views on all sorts of different issues all point in the same direction. To call them stereotypes is an understatement; if something only associates two separate things with each other it could still be considered a stereotype, but who knows how many separate opinions the word "liberal" associates with each other at the same time?
To (kinda) connect this to the main topic, I think of ideology labels as similar to what I see as one of the worst problems with sexism; by associating so many separate things with their supposed genders one also associates them with each other. If we were to combine something like "women make better medical nurses" with "women are worse at science and math" it'd seem quite contradictory even if we were to remove the gender label part itself and just say "those who are better nurses are worse at science and math"; I don't know about other universities but MUN requires having done the public exam chemistry course in high school to do nursing, and I remember doing that chemistry course last school year and it had a LOT of science and math in it, in ways that even I could see were relevant to nursing despite that I wasn't looking to go into it...
