We saw what happens when a woman dares to seek power. It was heartbreaking.
Six months ago I lay in bed with tears in my eyes. I was staring at my tiny iPhone screen, watching a larger-than-life woman stand before a packed crowd in Brooklyn, dressed all in white like some kind of goddess wizard, making history as she officially became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
For the first time, a woman had a shot at real political power. For the first time, we could tell our daughters: You could be anything! And it would actually be true. As autumn approached, you could feel the excitement. Women were on the brink. On the morning of Election Day, they dressed in pantsuits and welled up, holding their little girls’ hands at the voting booth, posting adorable photos.
That night was a devastation. Ambitious women and girls across the country didn’t get a new role model. They got a smackdown.
Six months ago I lay in bed with tears in my eyes. I was staring at my tiny iPhone screen, watching a larger-than-life woman stand before a packed crowd in Brooklyn, dressed all in white like some kind of goddess wizard, making history as she officially became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
For the first time, a woman had a shot at real political power. For the first time, we could tell our daughters: You could be anything! And it would actually be true. As autumn approached, you could feel the excitement. Women were on the brink. On the morning of Election Day, they dressed in pantsuits and welled up, holding their little girls’ hands at the voting booth, posting adorable photos.
That night was a devastation. Ambitious women and girls across the country didn’t get a new role model. They got a smackdown.
Though the sexism behind Clinton’s loss has hardly been a secret, it’s taken me awhile to truly grapple with what lays at the bottom of those election results. Clinton’s loss isn’t simply about emails or Russian hacking or James Comey or the perils of the Electoral College or the struggles of the so-called white working class. Underneath that, her loss has everything to do with the different expectations men and women face in our country. Her loss is about what we do to women who dare to seek power.
This struck me as I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ incredible essay on Barack Obama’s presidency. “To secure the White House,” Coates writes in The Atlantic, “Donald Trump needed only money and white bluster.” This is the simplest evidence you need to understand that of course racism played a role Trump’s election, Coates writes.
Immediately, I realized, Coates missed something.
It wasn’t just money and bluster.
Trump is a man.
Much of the country went for the guy. Sure, technically she got more votes, is winning the popular vote by millions, but a huge percentage of the country went for him. Obama voters switched sides. He won.
With his utter lack of government experience, track record of lies, without disclosing his taxes, with his hateful comments about women, his boast about sexual assault. For all that, Trump was seen as more “authentic” than her. More likable.
That’s sexism. You can dress it up in as many ill-advised email servers or Benghazi hearings as you like.
Time and again, men get a pass.
More: It’s OK To Mourn For Our First Female President
Amen! If you liked the above, you should read the other half of the link.
