Progressive (a rant by Sady Doyle)

[justiceischeap]

Some may say this belongs is GD : P (and maybe it does) but it's not specifically about the primaries, it's about gender politics (which happens to include content about Bernie and Hillary).

"Is feminism progressive? Is sexism political? I get the answer every time someone complains that Hillary Clinton’s supporters are only backing the most qualified and experienced Presidential candidate in memory “because she is a woman;” because Hillary Clinton, too, the politician who was a pioneer in the fight for universal healthcare, who has been one of the most visible advocates for women’s rights in the world since the mid-‘90s, who was one of the more liberal Senators on the floor, who was the second-most popular Secretary of State in history and whose incorporation of feminist priorities into foreign policy goals was so unprecedented that entire books have been written about it, is just “a woman.” Not a feminist, not a liberal, not even herself; just a gender, and the wrong gender, at that. I get the answer whenever, despite Clinton being almost ideologically identical to the current, male President, and for that matter to his equally male Vice-President, people looking to compare her to another politician can somehow only ever do so by comparing her to a woman — usually a dead woman, from an entirely different country, with entirely different, openly conservative politics, and who, by the way, was Margaret fucking Thatcher. Once again, Clinton is just a gender, and the gender is bad. I get the answer every time a guy defines “actual power” for me, and doesn’t include sexism on the list of what “actual power” is. I get the answer continually, as it happens, because somehow, no-one, anywhere, from any part of the political spectrum, will stop bringing up Hillary Clinton’s goddamned vagina.

I have my answer. I do. When one of the most accomplished women in the goddamned world is rhetorically reduced to just another pussy, over and over, and when “progressives” are not only not furious about this, they’re actually the ones doing it, and they are telling those of us who complain about it to shut up, I know exactly where I, and women, and feminism, rank on the “progressive” movement’s list of priorities.

But I already knew all this. I knew it when Michael Moore giggled about sexual assault allegations on TV. I knew it when Olbermann called Katie Couric “the Worst Person In The World” for suggesting some journalists had been sexist toward Hillary Clinton. I knew it when Freddie de Boer was out storming women’s comment sections because they told too many jokes to be Real Leftists, I knew it when I sat at that job interview and heard that “progressives” were mostly men who couldn’t read feminist writing, I knew it every time I saw left-wing men being abusive and shitty and condescending to their female co-workers, and believe me, I have seen that one thing happen, a lot.

I knew. I just hoped it wasn’t true."

Anyway, it's a totally righteous rant about progressivism and gender politics.

http://sadydoyle.tumblr.com/post/138860699828/progressive

[yallerdawg]

1. Everyone should read this!

[Shandris]

2. Well at least it's good to see they've finally turned like I knew they would.

I had wondered when the other shoe of the social vengeance...I mean, 'social justice'...variety would drop. I'd already seen it hit LGBT people almost immediately after gay marriage passed, so I knew it was only a matter of time before 'women' got split into a subgroup (as all identity politics does).

It's not an accident that in the past, people knew that words were what one used to obscure reality. Now we pretend they 'describe' reality. 'Groups' are nothing more than that, infinite resectioning (under the guise of 'intersectionality') is how it's accomplished.

And while I'm busy handing out gifts, allow me to point out that no one but you is 'reducing her to a p****'. Project much?

Edit: The 'you' refers, obviously, to the author of the article, not necessarily a poster.

[justiceischeap]

4. Pretty sure the whole "p***y" issue stems from this (if not before this)

And I've seen plenty of people proclaim that SOME women are only voting for HRC because they both have a vagina, and I've seen some women say that they are indeed voting for her only because she's female.

So, that does reduce both HRC and the female supporter to the one thing they most obviously have in common, a vagina.

[justiceischeap]

5. I'm a proud liberal!

[Hortensis]

7. I'm a proud progressive liberal.

The "progressive" part refers to HOW we prefer to tackle problems, WHICH forces to emphasize, or not.

[Hortensis]

6. "one of the most accomplished women in the goddamned world'

Sady, Sady, you're no lady. But you're my kind of person! Thanks, JusticeIsCheap. This was worth reading.

[justiceischeap]

8. Yeah, like I said

it was a righteous rant and it really, IMO, doesn't matter whom you support, she still makes tons of valid points in the overall living of daily life for women.

[yallerdawg]

9. I don't know any woman...

who doesn't have this same kind of story.

[hfojvt]

10. she makes the point

that apparently feminists should not like liberal men, because they are all just a bunch of sexists who won't support Hillary - just because she's a woman.

it seems to me kinda strange how people can not seem to support their candidate, without trying to tear down the people who do not support that candidate.

From where I sit, that is not a very convincing strategy.

And I don't mean that only Hillary supporters are doing it. I just recently read a whole bunch of attacks against John Lewis for having the nerve to say some things in support of Hillary.

[justiceischeap]

11. I think she makes the point that liberal men

could be doing more to support liberal women. For example, her story about her interview at a "progressive" publication has nothing to do with Clinton, at all.

As a lesbian, I very much saw correlations between the women's issues she spoke about being an inconvenience to the progressive movement and how the gay community was seen in the same light for many years within the Democratic party.

Really, it's a shame all you took from her piece is that feminists shouldn't like liberal men.

[hfojvt]

15. I have my own problems with progressive publications

I dropped all three of the subscriptions that I had - MotherJones, The Nation, and Progressive.

Well I probably agree about the inconvenience of women's issues, mainly because I seem to be sitting in the back of the bus. You have your own issues that are the most important to you.

At some point, if I am supposed to be part of this coalition, it would be nice if my concerns were addressed.

I wanted one very simple thing from Obama and the Democratic Congress, and I kinda naively thought we ALL agreed on it - get rid of the Bush tax cuts.

Oddly enough, we did not get that, even though it should have been easy (they were set to expire automatically) - and almost nobody else seems to care. Instead we got policies that increased income inequality, at the same time these (rich) politicians claim to care about income inequality.

So now I get to hear that I am a sexist if I don't feel like women's issues are more important than economic issues? I am supposed to do even more to support liberal women? Is the team's water bucket empty again?

[justiceischeap]

17. But women's issues are economic issues

Think of the pay gap, think of healthcare costs, think of how many single mothers struggle to makes ends meet. All economic issues that are also women's issues.

[hfojvt]

19. I think none of those are MY issues

I tend to think "let's help the poor" instead of "let's help those with two X chromosomes".

You think that because some people with double X's are part of the bottom 80% that that fits my agenda. I think it is divisive.

Why, after all, should I think of a "single mother" instead of a single PARENT? Hath not a male eyes?

If you only look at the chromosomes you tend to get policies that help double XX's at the 60th percentile of income but do NOT help people at the 12th percentile if they happen to have a Y chromosome.

[yallerdawg]

18. Those tax cuts? I do believe Obama delivered!

In 2012, during the fiscal cliff, the tax cuts were made permanent for single people making less than $400,000 per year and couples making less than $450,000 per year, and eliminated for everyone else, under the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Before the tax cuts, the highest marginal income tax rate was 39.6 percent. After the cuts, the highest rate was 35 percent. Once the cuts were eliminated for high income levels (single people making $400,000+ per year and couples making $450,000+ per year), the top income tax rate returned to 39.6 percent.

There seems to be a strange 'narrative' regarding elected Democratic politicians at DU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_tax_cuts

[hfojvt]

20. Obama made most of them permanent

he CLAIMED that he delivered.

Which only gives him another strike. One strike for NOT delivering, and a second strike for lying about it.

For some reason I do NOT consider permanent tax cuts that favor the rich to be any sort of victory at all.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022130101

[alarimer]

12. It's stupid to vote for her just because she's a woman and "it's her turn."

She will not be better for women just because she is one. No, we need radical change. All of those things that Bernie Sanders is for will do more to help women and everyone else than anything Hillary could possibly do. There is also the fact that she shills for Wall Street, which is something I for one and thoroughly sick of everybody doing. And that, to me, is more important than anything else.

[yallerdawg]

13. 44 men and counting.

Just call me "Mr. Stupid."

[justiceischeap]

14. ...

[yallerdawg]

16. From my childhood!