Old, but worth a read... "More Than Likeable Enough"

[moriah]

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/12/saying_nice_things_about_hillary_clinton_has_become_a_subversive_act.html

More Than Likable Enough
I like Hillary Clinton. And I’m convinced that saying so can be a subversive act.

By Sady Doyle

My affection for Hillary Clinton is hard to explain. It wins no fights and earns you no friends to admit feeling actual warmth, even protectiveness, toward this impossible, frustrating, contradictory, polarizing, disappointing woman. My finding Hillary intensely “likable” is weird. It doesn’t signify universal approval of her decisions. I can and do disagree with Hillary Clinton, regularly and strongly. But some part of me also hopes that Hillary Clinton is having a nice day.

I’ve come to believe that saying nice things about Hillary Clinton can be a subversive act. I recently spent some time sorting through Clintoniana dating back to the early 1990s, looking at the nasty things people have said about her and common narratives that have formed about her personality. I got a better sense of the pressures that she has to live with—even on days when Donald Trump isn’t using words such as disgusting and schlonged to describe her—and how those pressures have informed her decisions.

Unless you really take a look at those pressures, the narrative around Hillary Clinton’s “likability” is doomed to be inaccurate. Trying to parse Hillary Clinton without also parsing Hillary hate is like trying to drink water without touching the glass.

Here is one of those pressures: Hillary Clinton absolutely cannot express negative emotion in public. If she speaks loudly or gets angry or cries, she risks being seen as bitchy, crazy, dangerous. (When she raised her voice during the 2013 Benghazi Senate committee hearings, the cover of the New York Post blared “NO WONDER BILL’S AFRAID.”) But if Hillary avoids emotions—if she speaks strictly in calm, logical, detached terms—then she is cold, robotic, calculating.

I saw this, and I have to agree. People think her support among women is "voting with their ovaries", but it's from a different source. Just as men aren't being sexist, nor are women betraying feminism, for supporting Bernie -- just because they disagree so much with her policies doesn't make them sexist.

But if elected officials can be sexist enough to, as a "joke", suggest an amendment to a law about exotic dancers requiring them to be young and height-weight proportionate.... just because it's not coming from Progressive Bernie supporters on DU doesn't mean it isn't happening out in the world.

[LAS14]

1. Enthusiastic k & r!!!!! nt

[Thinkingabout]

2. K & R, good post, thanks for sharing.

[moriah]

6. Thanks!

It's one of the few things I've found that explain a lot of why I do like her even when I disagree.

[JFKcrat]

3. I've met many

people in person and on the Internet who have comfortably said the deciding factor in their vote for Clinton that she is a she, including a nice woman working in a DNC office in my area. She probably won't live long enough to be here for the 2020 election and I have empathy for her because of this. I feel it's a bit selfish and counterintuitive to feminism, but I still understand. My general impression based on canvassing, being a PCP, Precinct chair of a cacus and everyday experience is that about a third of HRC voters are so heavily gender influenced.

[moriah]

4. It's less that she's female. It's that she hasn't given up or given in.

Yes, it calls more to women, because people without a certain privilege are easier able to see it by definition. (Most of "male privilege" is largely unnoticed by men, and that's not their fault, it's the way all forms of privilege manifest.)

I mean, if I or the rest of Hillary's 08 supporters had just wanted any womb carrier to get ahead, we would have fallen for McCain's gambit to tap Palin.

There's no doubt that some people, even Bernie supporters, want to see a female president. I'd like to as well. The fact that I am able to support this one and others can't isn't sexist on either side.

[moriah]

13. Welcome to DU!

Enjoy your stay....

[SunSeeker]

5. K & R

[MarianJack]

7. K&R!

PEACE!

[LWolf]

8. I disliked her at my first sighting,

back in the 90s, and it's never gotten any better. Unlike Sady Doyle, my disaffection is easy to explain, very concretely, and I've done so many times.

I won't repeat all the easy to explain reasons here, unless you really want me to. I will say that I understand why Sady finds her affection hard to explain. If she were easier to like, it would be easier to explain.

I don't find her very high unfavorables, her lack of "likability" to be inaccurate at all.

I dislike her. I don't respect her on a couple of levels. I don't hate her, though, and when she quits trying to be my president and retires from public life and corporate pandering, I'll hope she has nice days.

[moriah]

9. You're very entitled to your opinions. We're all here to share them.

But I appreciate the reluctance to start trashing on a thread that contained a positive article vs a negative one about your preferred candidate.

[Her Sister]

10. KnR

Thanks for this!

[moriah]

11. You're welcome.

And even if a person supports Bernie, I do hope that they recognize much of Hillary's often baffling behavior now is at least partially a product of all the RW attacks and nosiness and propaganda. Yes, she acts paranoid, but they've been out to get her awhile.

I have a feeling that many Bernie supporters may admire the tenacity to keep going despite all the crap flung at her from the other side, even if they don't think she's the best President or like her judgment.