... but here's one: Joycelyn Elders, the first Surgeon General in the Clinton administration. She came to mind as I was listening to some misguided member of my sex on a radio call-in show recently. This person was droning on about how important it is that everybody vote for Hillary Clinton because she's a woman--no other reason, mind you, just that she's a woman. Little things like policy positions don't matter, because we "have to break the glass ceiling." That's right, one politician without a penis is as good as another. Pussy is generic. I heard that line early in the campaign from people like Eleanor Smeal, but I'm amazed that it still has traction at this point. (Melissa McEwan, aka Shakespeare's Sister, calls this "vagina voting," and she's done some great riffs on it, such as this one.)
Thinking about the pseudo-feminism of the Clinton supporters got me thinking about the pseudo-feminism of Clinton herself, and that reminded me of Joycelyn Elders. I remember being kind of thrilled when Bill appointed her, because she had a such a fierce vision of how to tackle social problems, yet she seemed to be a very warm, fundamentally likable human being. Everything she did and said in her brief tenure bore that out. And then, because she had the audacity to acknowledge that teenagers masturbate, and to suggest that locking up drug addicts might be pointless, the religious right started baying for her blood. Bill gave her up with almost no fight at all. And Hillary, if memory serves, didn't say a word. Ms. "Vote For Me 'Cuz I'm A Girl" couldn't be bothered to come to the defense of an entirely admirable woman who was being attacked for simply doing her job. That pretty much tells me everything I need to know about what sisterhood means to HRC.
Elders is in her seventies now, but apparently is still working and speaking out on the issues that got her in trouble. Good for her. You can read a 2005 profile of her here. For more about Hillary's habit of backstabbing, see this post from the blog Jack and Jill Politics.
3 comments:
And where do I go for good commentary on current affairs and great recs?
Here... Thanks for yet another great post.
A lovely lady, isn't she ?
So grounded and balanced.
Thank you, E. Glad you enjoyed it. Dr. Elders is one of my heroes. The way she was treated still infuriates me.
She is lovely, Chaya. I always thought she was really beautiful in that way that too often goes unnoticed.
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