No, I am not overstating anything, but I am a Canadian, and because I am one step away from this wound, I have no dignity lost because Clinton lost, and right now, the American left, particularly feminism is veering toward something very treacherous in their thinking that is absolutely going to cost them much more than a bruised ego. The problem is when you are caught up in a vortex, you don’t see the obvious and you start justifying and making excuses, complicating matters until you box yourself in and all your enemies have to do is lock you in as you did all the work for them.
It is time to step back rationally and stop pretending we are in an age where women have no power because that is an insult to every feminist who sacrificed a comfort zone to bring you the right to vote, birth control, freedom, and opportunity. That is a very selfish and destructive thing to do.
Clinton lost because her campaign didn’t cut it. Stop whining about misogynists because there are always opposition and obstacles and you will always have a battle on your hands. I knew from day one she was going to lose even if she won the popular vote. She didn’t get it. This election was not a referendum on feminism. It was about the economy. She needed to have a feminist economic platform and explain why feminism is actually crucial to invigorating the economy for everyone. Showung how pay equity and true equal rights and opportunities would create real jobs and drive down poverty would have been the hook, and that would have made all the difference. If you keep half of your country back, it costs the country billions, but if we give men and women a real chance to prosper unfettered, then we free up resources for other things. She never did this. Her entire campaign was so me-based: I want to be the first female president, but never considered why people should vote for her, and no, the uninspiring threat that she was the lesser of two evils is not a reason: it implies even she doesn’t think she is worthy of the position.
Feminists are using archaic structures and filters and it is starting to impede them. The model has become too static and no longer reflects modern reality. Instead of pulling out the usual go-to bogeymen, they have to step back and scrutinize everything from the bedtime stories they tell their daughters to expanding and weaving feminism to other disciplines. This problem is something I have thought about for years, and then I decided to write fiction and nonfiction that uses a matriarchal storytelling structure rather than the dominate patriarchal one because content of stories is only half the equation. If the structure is latently sexist, you get bogged down. I had a revelation as an author, and I made change. I didn’t throw my hands in the air and blame misogynists for shaping thought, I got in the ring and plotted through.
And I do so even when I have knuckleheads telling me I am the reason people hate feminists – on this very forum, no less. And I bet this is someone who is convinced he or she is a liberal progressive or at least intelligent, and obviously, that is a load of hooey. To quote the fabulous RuPaul: what other people think about me is none of my business. They have no power over me or can dent my peace or self-confidence.
I will keep writing, and I will keep pointing out where all the latent misogyny is hiding as I expose it, and find replacements that are feminist.
But I will not let people go unchallenged when they start to retreat or make logical errors, and that Vox article was toxic dreck that is destructive, and if I were the editor, you can be sure that article would not have gone unchallenged from top to bottom. The confirmation bias is a poisonous seed to thinking. As I said before, if women in more sexist countries can win their nation’s highest office, then Clinton could have won hers. She didn’t because she didn’t have the better strategy.
