Interesting food for thought regarding past women in politics from this article, The Fight Stuff, in relationship to how men are and have been warming to HRC:

NOTABLE in the Indiana and North Carolina primary results and in many recent polls are signs of a change in the gender weather: white men are warming to Hillary Clinton — at least enough to vote for her. It’s no small shift. These men have historically been her fiercest antagonists. Their conversion may point less to a new kind of male voter than to a new kind of female vote-getter.
…

The specter of the prissy hall monitor is, in part, the legacy of the great female reformers of Victorian America. In fact, these women were the opposite of fainting flowers. Susan B. Anthony barely flinched in the face of epithets, hurled eggs and death threats. Carry A. Nation swung an ax. Yet they were regarded by men as the regulators outside the game. Indeed, many 19th-century female reformers defined themselves that way — as reluctant trespassers in the public sphere who had left the domestic circle only to fulfill their duty as the morally superior sex, housekeepers scouring away a nation’s vice.

What Faludi is actually promoting is a trend change toward male interest/acceptance of women in politics. Wonder what the historians think of her idea?

It sucks to be a political wife these days (especially in MI, NJ and NY)

BUT its awesome to by a kittycat in the Ms. Rose Household!

So between Obama’s latest speech, Geraldine Ferraro’s comments, and what have you, it seems like the hierarchy of RACE, CLASS AND GENDER is among us. On all the mainstream news stations, print journals, and online media, the news anchors and journalists are acting like this is a BRAND NEW issue that America has never dealt with before. Well, clearly its been everyone’s minds for a LONG time but since this is the first time that a woman or an African American man is thisclose to winning the democratic candidacy, the topic is all over the place. But we still aren’t addressing these issues in the right way. Instead we are tip toeing around them, only mentioning them as abstract terms and theories. Leave that to the academics. it is up to the media to really get into it.
Even Clinton’s summary of the topics and Obama’s speech is strained at best:

In her opening remarks, Mrs. Clinton said she was “very glad” Mr. Obama had made his speech, given that she said that race had been a “complicated” issue in America that had been marked by “pitfalls” and “detours.” Asked why she was glad, she said that issues of race and gender are “important” and twice called them “difficult issues.” via

Meanwhile, alternative media like Alternet is approaching the categories of race, class and gender with full force. One of their latest pieces called “Veterans Decry Institutional Sexism in Military” excellently details issues female veterans deal with because of their gender.

As soldiers, then as veterans, and, even now, as members of the anti-war movement, women in the military are still fighting to be taken seriously. “It’s hard to be a veteran of the war and a woman,” said Iraq vet Patty McCann. “… A lot of times my experience gets boiled down to what I experienced as a woman — and I don’t get to talk about some of the things that I experienced as a soldier.”

One’s identity as a soldier versus a woman is fascinating. It is a dichotomy that is not explored on CNN or Fox news. It is one that could easily be applied to Clinton and Obama, their racial and gender identities and their identities as political candidates and public personalities.

Major news organizations should take a lead from media like Alternet to deliver us news we deserve.

I think its time to start a petition! Details to follow!

This article from the NYTimes is right on when it asks:

But the politics of the last few months have certainly opened a spigot on the question of where exactly society stands on gender matters.

It’s hardly that all women are on the same side — there were plenty of women making the points men were about prostitution after Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York resigned following the news that he had paid perhaps tens of thousands of dollars for sex. But there seemed to be a starker split between men’s and women’s reactions to the scandal. And women who for a long time felt they were on opposite sides of a generational divide on gender issues were finding things in common.

Its true this week has been an extraordinary one for women, gender and politics in the media from the Spitzer mess to Geraldine Ferraro and whatever else latest Clinton news.

What else I really appreciate about this article is the acknowledgment of women as political spouses giving real identity to those people who choose (or don’t choose that role) and all the consequences of that role.  Unfortunately, it should not have taken an extramarital affair for the media and people to take notice.  The only real discussion of the political spouse has been about how the former President Clinton interferes and causes problems for his wife’s campaign. Another branch of this storyline is to compare other political spouses to Clinton and discuss how they don’t measure up to him.

The article also touches upon the generational divide between women by discussing how women of different ages and political identities are finding more in common.

Don’t know what quite to say about the postfeminism issue, but hopefully we are not living in a POST anything era!

on this whole “stand by your man” theme.

While watching AC 360 tonight, a blog entry from the show’s website was mentioned. The blog entry was about the supposed necessity for Silda Spitzer to stand next to her husband while he made his official comments on the manner.

While the nation’s mouths are hanging open at Gov. Eliot Spitzer, every time his public apology airs I can’t take my eyes or my mind off of his poor wife, Silda Wall Spitzer. Why is it that she stood there beside her husband during his public admission yesterday afternoon?

But his wife, standing by his side in that awkward non-informational press conference? After her public humiliation, he said, that was just a mean thing to make her do. via

While I don’t necessarily question Silda Spitzer’s decision to stand next to her husband at his press conference, I was baffled by the fact that he never mentioned her directly. It was as though her presence was completely taken for granted.  He could have addressed how difficult it must have been for her to stand next to him.  But once again this is NONE of my business.

I definitely think the media and press is focusing way too much on the “wife as victim” mentality.

Reminds me of the day the when so many pundits criticized Hillary Clinton for staying married to Bill.