Good Grief

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

This is a screen shot of the headline and accompanying image of a Peter Beinart article at the Atlantic today:


1. Clintonphobia. A terrific name for a pathological fear of a female candidate. How neat.

2. Her "reputation for retaliating for betrayals." What a bitch, amirite? As opposed to all those male politicians who famously buy Fruit of the Month Club memberships for the people who betray them.

3. HILLARY HAS NOT ANNOUNCED THAT SHE IS RUNNING. No Democrat could even know for certain if they would be running against Hillary Clinton, because SHE ISN'T YET RUNNING HERSELF. Beinart writes:

On Tuesday, The Washington Post's Aaron Blake ran through the reasons various potential challengers seemed disinclined to run: Warren has praised Clinton too much; Joe Biden's approval ratings are low; O'Malley would have trouble raising money. But these individual factors don't entirely explain why no one has emerged.

Hey, here's a reason: Maybe because it's 2014, we haven't even passed the midterm election yet, and Hillary hasn't even announced whether she's running. JUST A THOUGHT.

4. That picture. OMG that picture. That picture comes from the Benghazi hearings during which Hillary Clinton was a total badass as she pushed back against Republicans who were being unfathomably rude, mendacious, vindictive dirtbags.

That picture was, in fact, the very image used on the front page of the New York Post following the hearing, accompanied by the headline: "No Wonder Bill's Afraid: Hillary Explodes with Rage at Benghazi Hearing."

Yes, let's talk about how ruthless Hillary Clinton is, then use a picture of her being hammered in a vicious partisan attack to intimate that she's a sinister hysteric.

And then let's all pretend that this isn't classic misogyny. Let's all pretend that this doesn't happen to women with even the smallest public presence all the time—provoked to anger then evidence of that anger used to discredit us as monsters.

An entire article musing about how people aren't running because Hillary Clinton (and her husband) are uniquely brutal politicians. When Hillary Clinton isn't even yet running herself. A fact which is treated as incidental.