The Click

The other night I was yakking with a Star colleague, a journalistic dynamo who is 32. The conversation went from recent stories about wife abuse to female to our obsession with weight to eating disorders to female media images to why women her age seem to be not so preoccupied with feminism or, more specifically, with fighting to preserve some very hard-won rights for women.

She admitted that, while acknowledging the fact that she'd never be where she is today without the women my age (and older) who kicked down the barriers in newsrooms, she did not believe there was anything left to fight for.

I told her about Bill C-484, the so-called ''Unborn Victims of Crime Act'' but officially is "An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of an unborn child while committing an offence)." Its most vehement supporters are all against a woman's right to choose. Why? Because the bill, if enacted, will open the legal door to declaring a fetus a person.

And you know where that leads.

My friend got it.

It reminded me of the early 1970s, when Ms. magazine used to have a section where readers could contribute personal experiences of sexism and/or misogyny. It was about ''the click,'' the point at which they clued into what the feminist movement was about.

Now obviously, not all young women are as complacent as my young friend, as the women who shape Feministing, Jezebel, Antigone, Shameless and elsewhere amply demonstrate.

Understand that I am not asking that women perpetually march on Parliament Hill waving placards and chanting slogans about ending poverty, getting decent daycare and building affordable housing -- all of which are needed most by women and their children. Although if we were, maybe there would be some necessary changes made.

I just wish more people would clue into the misogyny that is out there.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the sexism aimed at Hillary Clinton. I received I don't-know-many emails. Lots. They fell into two camps. The first, obviously, agreed with me, and thanked me for the column. But the second accused me of exaggeration, and of the possession of an overactive imagination.

Then yesterday, via Salon, I saw this video, a rather melodramatic compilation of media attacks on Clinton in which you'll see her being accused of sounding like a ''scolding mother'' and a ''nagging wife'' who orders her husband to ''take out the garbage.'' She's compared to ''everybody's first wife'' and even to Lorena Bobbitt, the woman who cut off her abusive husband's penis after he repeatedly attacked her. (Of course, nobody remembers her motive, just what she did.)

Obviously, the video is a shameless plug for Clinton, especially in its sappy latter half.

But that doesn't minimize the very real misogyny.

Note: After I posted it to my Facebook account yesterday, my writer/activist friend Scott Piatkowski commented that the video isn't fair to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, whom I adore. That's because the clips from his rant were justified, and not at all sexist. He was on about how Clinton had to disavow herself from former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro's remark that the only reason that Barack Obama was still in the race for the White House was that he is black. After Obama's senior foreign policy advisor Samantha Power stepped down for calling Clinton ''a monster,'' said Olbermann, Clinton had a special obligation to kneecap Ferraro and fast.

That aside, the video is very revealing. And it hit my girlfriends right between their sleepy eyes. It also made some of the male readers who brushed off my recent column on the subject -- and were still emailing me about it -- admit that maybe, just maybe, there was truth to what I wrote.

Roll the tape, and hear the click.

 

Comments

[johnnykap]

Zerbs, my eyes aren't quite they used to be so imagine my surprise to see you state that feminism was all about "the click". The c and the l kind of merged into a d at first glance, due to the font you chose (or perhaps the font was forced upon you by society). Since that's what feminism really IS all about, you have to admit that's pretty funny.

[sooey]

Wow. That's some moronic punditry. Were they on goofballs?

RevRend Wright raises a good point about Hillary having never been called the N-word. Does he mention whether Obama has either?

[msakel]

Thanks, Antonia! Your blog's a gem. This is absolutely ESSENTIAL viewing for all women. I have been following closely Sen. Hillary Clinton on this historic race to the White House and I can tell you that (male-dominated) mainstream media have been disgustingly and blatantly sexist in their treatment of this strong, capable woman. Kim Gandy, mother of two teenage girls and Pres. of NOW supports Hillary's nomination fight and on her site has a litany of sexist sins committed against Hillary with impunity. She says "when women are degraded in the media, the mainstream media is contributing to the incredibly coarse nature of other (internet) media..."

Racist comments are off-bounds but sexist comments are 'free for all' and MSNBC's Chris Matthews has made millions vilifying women! It pays to be a misogynist journalist! Mike Barnicle said: Hillary looks at Obama "like everyone's first wife stnading outside a probate court"!

Obama's sexism was obvious when bitterly angry at his pathetically inept performance in the Pennsylvania ABC debate in the hands of George Stephanopoulos and Gibson he went to give a speech next day in N.C. He "flipped off Hillary by using his mid-index finger and scratching his cheek while waiting for the audience to clue in to what he was really doing: Vilifying his female opponent and fellow-Senator Clinton! L.A. Times reported this and YouTube has it in full glory "Obama gives Hillary the finger". He then went on,in the best Z-rapper-wannabe fashion, to "shake the mud and s*it" off his shoes and shoulders to the obvious delight of his equally immature and vindictive audience.

Shouldn't Obama revise his resume and apply for a comedian's job at SNL? Surely his Junior High antics and vilification of his fellow senator and total disrespect for women should not go unrewarded. But the presidency?! It'd be like giving your new car's keys to your 14-year-old son out on his first date! Zeus help us! And Rev. Wright bless us.

[msakel]

Thanks for this video. But No, Antonia. I beg to disagree with thee! This video is most definitely not just a "shameless plug for Clinton". It's already been used officially by her Campaign on her website, which I'd asked quite a few female friends to visit. She is not 'plugging'. She's telling it like it is for a great many women trying to break the glass ceiling. Site has great videos showing the humanity that many, including women, feel is not Hillary's right to share in. Personally, I love the second part of this video. It's about time gutsy American women, and all of us here in the Harper-land wilderness, get energized about this capable, strong, intelligent yet flawed, female presidential candidate!

But have we come a long way, Antonia? That's the question. And that's precisely why the bitter nomination race is so important to us all! If only you'd post the infamous Obama Jay-Z rapper wannabe performance the day after his pathetically inept perfromance at the ABC debate in the hands of Stephanopoulos and Gibson! He went to N.C. to give another Speech (what else?) and to give Hillary the "flip-off" in cryptic fashion, scratching with his mid-finger while pausing till the wild audience clues in and gets what he's trying to tell them in his cowardly fashion! Then after "fingering" Hillary he proceeds to "shake off the mud and s*it" off his dainty shoulders and shoes, pretending Hillary is the excrement being shaken off! This is the immature, disrespectful, sexist way this Healing and Unity transcendence candidate treats his female fellow-senator, HIllary Clinton. Great charm offensive, eh?! The incredibly misogynist and mainstream media, other than the LA Times that broke the story, has yet to wake up from its sexist dogmatic slumber. Of course, YouTube has this immature man's well-orchestrated act for all to view in disgust. Please view it Antonia!

Now you must agree this socio-political Junior High grad and presidential wannabe should revise his anorexic resume and apply for a job at SNL instead! At least the joke wouldn't be on the poor American voters, who'd be--Ye Zeus!-getting a neophyte with an angry teenager's coping tactic for dealing with his vindictive bitterness and temper-tantrums.