The Bitch That Gets Stuff Done

By now millions have probably seen the video (or the live telecast) of Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live sketch entitled “Bitch Is the New Black,” in which she humorously capitalized on Hillary Clinton’s “bitch factor.” Fey made a case for perceiving this characterization as a plus, “She is (a bitch). So am I. Bitches get stuff done. That’s why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers instead of priests. At the end of the year you hated those bitches, but you knew the capital of Vermont.”

 

After viewing the segment, I thought how brilliant a move it would be to actually GO with the bitch thing instead of complaining about it; instead of analyzing it; instead of going against the tide. The analysis has been done after all, but not many are buying it. As a woman Hillary is a victim of thousands of years of misogynistic, patriarchal and dualistic constructions of “womanhood.” In the eyes of millions she will be perceived either as “likeable,” in which case she must be demure, “feminine” and passive. If Hillary was this kind of woman she could kiss her chances at the Presidency good-bye.  On the contrary Hillary is tough, assertive, vocal and strong in which case she is characterized as The Bitch. I wish I had a nickel for every newspaper headline, television news broadcast and Internet feed that contains both the words “Clinton” and “attacks.”  When she is critical of Obama, when Obama’s campaign plays dirty and she calls him out on it, when she casts doubt upon his policies and “eloquent” emptiness, she is the wicked stepmother poking the broom at Cinderella.

 

The collective, national reaction to the expression of emotion through quivering voice and misty eyes has also been analyzed by others more qualified than I, but I cannot help but comment. It is  clear that the interpretation of quivering voice and misty eyes in Hillary is perceived much differently than when say, George Bush or Mitt Romney display such expressions of emotion . The men cry and the reaction is, “Awwwwww. See Mitt cry. Look how sensitive; how moved he is.” In Hillary it is interpreted as weakness or as a “typical” feminine ploy that when she’s not getting what she wants, she’ll cry (here’s to you, Maureen Dowd). Or it is interpreted as womanly emotion, surely evidence that a woman cannot be President. There are those I think, who actually imagine Hillary launching a nuclear weapon on a whim brought on by some post-menopausal hormonal imbalance. I suspect that all Barack need do to wrap this whole thing up is shed a few while in the passionate throes of one of his rhetorical speeches.

 

Tina Fey turned the image of Bitch on its head and in some sense forced us to look once again at America’s fear of female power steeped in sexism. Oh yes, I know. I will receive comments on this blog that will protest that sexism has anything to do with it. I will hear ad nauseum that the speaker does not oppose Hillary AS a woman but because she is HILLARY. And this may be true for a handful of you; as for the rest, save it. I wasn’t born yesterday. America’s collective psyche cannot escape the archetypal constructions, socially conditioned through thousands of years of patriarchy. The same mentality that maintains Clinton cannot be a good President by virtue of her sex is the same mentality that results in a Christian school's forbidding a woman to referee a boys’ basketball game. Administrators of the school recounted the ancient words of the First Letter to Timothy that echo back from the grave, “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.”

 

When I debate Hillary’s struggle from the evidential argument of sexism, invariably I am presented with a comparable appeal to Obama’s obstacle of racism. But historically, America has always been more prepared to welcome African-American men before women into the halls of power and fame. In the passage of suffrage, African-American males were afforded the right to vote 50 years before women. In the elected offices of Governor, Senator and Congress, a pattern emerges and it is quite stunning. In all of these offices, the first African-American male was elected before the first woman by a span of 50-60 years. It may simply be Hillary’s misfortune to have been born too soon.

 

A friend of mine recently sent an article to me entitled, "It's OK to Vote for Obama Because He's Black," written by, Gary Kamiya, Executive Editor of Salon.com in which he wrote the following:

Obama's blackness is his indispensable asset. Without it, he would not have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected president.

Obama's charisma, which is his unique political strength, is real, but it cannot be separated from the fact that he's black. When Obama speaks of change and hope and healing divisions, his words carry an electric charge because of who he is: He embodies his own message, the very definition of charisma. As a black man offering reconciliation, he is making a deeply personal connection with whites, not merely  a rhetorical one.

So white enthusiasm for Obama isdriven by his race. But there's nothing wrong with that fact. Those who criticize it are simultaneously too idealistic and too cynical: They assume that it's possible to simply ignore Obama's race, while also imputing unsavory motivations to those who are inspired by it…having a black president would give the country a deeper comfort level in talking about racial issues. It would help Americans…break out of the sterile guilt/victim dialogue…

I don’t know how a friend of mine could send this article to me as an appeal to consider Obama as my choice for Democratic nominee (or to understand his), without knowing that I would read Kamiya’s essay and turn the feminist hermeneutical eye upon it. Kamiya’s analysis was stunning to me for several reasons. For starters, he wasn’t afraid to write it.  But what knocked me right between the eyes was his use of language; words like “reconciliation,” and “guilt/victim dialogue” and “healing.” Those who know me know also that one of my particular areas of interest is the study of the dynamics of forgiveness and reconciliation in culture and religion. The elements of reconciliation occur in stages. In order for reconciliation to occur there must first be acknowledgment of the injury by both parties. Secondly, the offending party must make a gesture of atonement or an expression of remorse and only then can the two be reconciled. If Kamiya is right and one of the key factors in America’s embrace of Obama is the attempt to reconcile its racist past, then it became crystal clear to me why Hillary Clinton as a woman (which is not possible to “simply ignore”) is not being extended the same conciliatory hand. America has not yet acknowledged its misogynist past. America has not yet struggled with, confronted nor admitted its pervasive sexism. America has not yet offered a gesture of atonement or an expression of remorse for its historical unjust treatment of women. 

If nine years of experience teaching feminist critical analysis in a college classroom can serve as a microcosm of American attitudes towards gender critique, then my analysis is valid. There is no issue in my classroom more contentious, more likely to incite hostility and protest, or more denied,rejected and dismissed. The token month of March is set aside as “Women’s History Month, “ but in most treatments of these 31 days, American classrooms celebrate the achievements of the exceptions; those few women who were able to rise above an America characterized by impossibly unjust laws and institutions. Students do not learn of the ideological and practical heinous treatment of women both in the public and domestic spheres. They do not learn of laws denying women inheritance rights, property rights, jurisdiction over their own children and legal protection from violence and abuse. They do not learn of practices, which allowed a man to hire out his wife and keep her wages. They do not learn of fatal force feedings of women imprisoned and engaged in hunger strikes, demanding the right to be considered American citizens and to have a voice in choosing those who would legislate their futures.  If I have 35 students in a classroom, two or three (in a good semester) have had previous exposure to feminist theory. Case in point: just a few weeks ago I presented an introductory lecture on feminist critical analysis. I described the critique of patriarchy (shoot, I had to define the word). I explained the consequences of a system in which men possess dominance in every area of public and private life; a system designed to keep women legally bound to men, dependent, uneducated, confined. And in a classroom moment that took my breath away, a young woman raised her hand and asked, “What’s wrong with that?” I cannot imagine an African-American student in response to a lesson on racism, slavery and segregation raising a hand and asking, “What’s wrong with that?”

Tina Fey’s little sketch may uncover more truth than even she might have guessed. Bitch is the new black. And America simply cannot reconcile it. I hope that it won’t take 50-60 years for America to elect its first woman president after it has elected an African-American male. I hope the same strides that have been made with respect to an analysis of racism in this country occur with respect to its analysis of sexism. I hope that every child in every classroom will not only celebrate the sheroes of March but  will be taught a  more accurate accounting of America’s dark sexist past, and of the American way of life experienced by the millions who are not named.

And then perhaps, if history must repeat itself and IF Obama is the Democratic nominee and should be elected President of the United States of America in 2008, I may have the opportunity in 2012 to proudly wear on my lapel a political button that reads, “Hillary Clinton for President: The Bitch is Back.”