Today's Daily Cardinal opinion section prints an editorial cartoon that I wish I could link to but it is not available online. Pick up a print copy and check out page 5. Basically it is a caricature of Sen. Hillary Clinton with oven mitts on and holding out a cake, with "I have more experience than Barack" written on it. The caption reads "Since when does being someone's wife make you an expert?"
It is a degrading representation not just of Hillary but negatively stereotypes wives as just women baking cakes.
"Being someone's wife." Yes, Hillary Clinton is President Bill Clinton's wife. She was also First Lady AND is a United States Senator.
I'm not saying that Senator Barack Obama does not have experience, but I will say that Senator Clinton is more than "someone's wife."
- US Senator since 2001
- As First Lady, she was heavily involved in international relations, frequently traveling to other countries to meet with leaders - and I'm sure she discussed more than baking with Nelson Mandela...or Benazir Bhutto...or Tony Blair...or Gro Brundtland of Norway (who went on to head the World Health Organization), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, China's Jiang Zemin, the Dalai Lama, and so on.
- Also as First Lady she had an office in the West Wing. She used this role to meet with Congresspeople. SCHIP was started in part due to her work with Senator Ted Kennedy. The First Lady met with Cabinet members, working with Attorney General Janet Reno to form the Office on Violence Against Women at the DoJ. Quoting Wikipedia (against my teachers' recommendations), "In 1997, she initiated and shepherded the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which she regarded as her greatest accomplishment as First Lady."
- etc.
Since when does being someone's wife preclude any other aspect of your experience or identity?
It is a degrading representation not just of Hillary but negatively stereotypes wives as just women baking cakes.
"Being someone's wife." Yes, Hillary Clinton is President Bill Clinton's wife. She was also First Lady AND is a United States Senator.
I'm not saying that Senator Barack Obama does not have experience, but I will say that Senator Clinton is more than "someone's wife."
- US Senator since 2001
- As First Lady, she was heavily involved in international relations, frequently traveling to other countries to meet with leaders - and I'm sure she discussed more than baking with Nelson Mandela...or Benazir Bhutto...or Tony Blair...or Gro Brundtland of Norway (who went on to head the World Health Organization), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, China's Jiang Zemin, the Dalai Lama, and so on.
- Also as First Lady she had an office in the West Wing. She used this role to meet with Congresspeople. SCHIP was started in part due to her work with Senator Ted Kennedy. The First Lady met with Cabinet members, working with Attorney General Janet Reno to form the Office on Violence Against Women at the DoJ. Quoting Wikipedia (against my teachers' recommendations), "In 1997, she initiated and shepherded the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which she regarded as her greatest accomplishment as First Lady."
- etc.
Since when does being someone's wife preclude any other aspect of your experience or identity?
2 Comments:
IT'S THE CARDINAL. DO YOU THINK THEY GIVE A DAMN?
It's the point of a political cartoon to raise some hell. Always has been.
I'm willing to bet the cartoonist (a women) wasn't trying to degrade women, but simply pointing out that Hillary's claim of being "ready to lead" and having all this experience isn't necessarily true.
Obama has been in elected office longer than Hillary, but she makes it seem like she's been in the Senate for 30 years. Being First Lady was valuable experience for her in many ways, especially her role with health care reform, but I don't think the cartoon is that offensive.
It's a political cartoon, and it did its job by making us think.
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