She's a Monster

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Thursday, April 16, 2015
[Content Note: Misogyny.]

So, one of the things I was thinking about, after I posted the thing about Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton, is how often I rarely hear Hillary Clinton spoken about in the same sentence as another woman without a frame that casts them as adversaries and/or competitors.

With the important caveats that no woman owes Hillary Clinton a vote, and that she must continue to work to earn the trust of all women, especially women of color, I find it really interesting (ahem) that a female candidate who has spent much of her career talking about women's issues is almost never discussed as having a good relationship with any other women.

And, the thing is, Clinton works extremely well with lots of other women. She seems to have a warm relationship with lots of her female colleagues: Women who work for her, women who work with her, other female leaders in the US, other female leaders around the globe.

Just a quick Google image search later, here is a totally different narrative than the one we usually get about Hillary Clinton:

image of Hillary Clinton with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a thin white woman, on a Congressional panel; they are both smiling
Again with Senator Elizabeth Warren.

image of Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama, a thin black woman, sitting beside each other, laughing
With First Lady Michelle Obama.

image of Hillary Clinton leaning over to whisper something in the ear of Huma Abedin, a thin Indian-Pakistani-American woman
With her long-time aide Huma Abedin.

image of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, a thin white woman, hugging each other tightly and smiling
With House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

image of Hillary Clinton being warmly greeted by former Senator Kay Hagan, a thin white woman
With former North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan.

image of Hillary Clinton standing next to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, an in-betweenie older white woman; they are turned toward each other and smiling
With former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

image of Hillary Clinton standing and laughing with Justice Elena Kagan, an in-betweenie white woman, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an in-betweenie Latina, at a State of the Union address
With Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

image of Hillary Clinton sitting at a table with Princess Diana and an older white woman who I don't recognize at a luncheon, many years ago
With Princess Diana.

image of Hillary Clinton with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, an in-betweenie black woman; they are standing beside each other smiling and shaking hands
With Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

image of Hillary Clinton standing beside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an in-betweenie white woman; they are standing in the same position, their hands clasped in front of them, looking at each other and smiling
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

image of Hillary Clinton with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, an in-betweenie Brazilian woman; they are greeting each other with a hug
With Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

image of Hillary Clinton with President of the Republic of Kosovo, Madam Atifete Jahjaga, a thin white woman; they are greeting each other warmly face-to-face
With President of the Republic of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga.

image of Hillary Clinton with Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China Liu Yandong, a thin Chinese woman; they are greeting each other with smiles
With Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China Liu Yandong.

image of Hillary Clinton with Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a thin Asian woman; they are hugging each other tightly
With Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

image of Hillary Clinton getting a traditional Maori greeting, forehead-to-forehead, from Rose White–Tahupārae, Kaumatua of New Zealand's Parliament, a fat Maori woman
With Rose White–Tahupārae, Kaumatua of New Zealand's Parliament.

image of Hillary Clinton standing and holding hands with Japan's Empress Michiko, a thin Japanese woman
With Japan's Empress Michiko.

image of Hillary Clinton standing under an umbrella with her arm around Maite Emily Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, a thin black woman
With Maite Emily Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

image of Hillary Clinton dancing beside Nkoana-Mashabane
...With whom Clinton rather famously also shared a dance. *wink*

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. (Pun intended.) Clearly, all of these women hate Hillary Clinton, and she is a monster.

In all seriousness, it's quite possible that among these women are some people who don't like Clinton, or whom Clinton doesn't like, which only serves to underline the point even harder: She doesn't even have to like women in order to have a good, and friendly, working relationship with them.

And, again, I'm not trying to say that any woman owes Hillary Clinton anything, nor that there are no valid reasons for women to dislike Hillary Clinton. My point isn't even really about liking Hillary Clinton.

It's about the dominant narratives we have around female politicians—especially female politicians who advocate for women.

I mean, did anyone in the media even care if Sarah Palin got along with other women? No. Because she didn't advocate for women's issues, so there was no value in trying to discredit her with "friendless female" stories.

[Next Time: President Obama and Hillary Clinton's friendship, and how it's the most interesting thing in US politics.]
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