Elizabeth Warren AND Hillary Clinton Sexism Watch, Part Whatever in an Endless F#@king Series

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

After I did a short thread on Twitter regarding a trash article at BuzzFeed containing a ridiculous comparison between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton, intended to insult Clinton and compliment Warren but ultimately flattering neither of them, I added two subsequent tweets reading:

As a general observation: Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, though sharing many policy goals as members of the same party, aren't actually all that much alike as politicians and communicators. They're both women. That doesn't warrant relentless comparison.

If you find yourself inclined to make a comparison between Warren and Clinton, ask yourself: "Would I have even wondered for a hot second if Barack Obama resembled John Kerry in this way?" If the answer is no, then you are probably doing something stupid and quite possibly sexist.

I honestly cannot emphasize this point enough. In 2004, John Kerry lost to George W. Bush. In 2008, Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee and eventual president. There was virtually no comparison made between Obama and Kerry during the '08 campaign.

In fact, there was also no comparison made between any of the other Democratic candidates during that campaign, before Obama won the nomination. That includes John Edwards, who had been Kerry's running mate in '04.

Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren certainly share some things in common, but their styles as politicians are incredibly different, and their respective journeys to the destination of campaigning for the presidency are vastly different. If they were two random white male candidates, they wouldn't be constantly compared, especially when Warren isn't anywhere close to securing the nomination.

It's misogyny, and specifically the consequence of institutional misogyny that there are very few women in the upper echelons of national politics, that makes it seem "reasonable" to constantly draw comparisons between Clinton and Warren. But it isn't reasonable.

So stop.