Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary

I overall thought that this book of short stories / articles was interesting. I did not leave with any better understanding of Hillary or women in political leadership positions, I actually felt a bit more perplexed. It seemed like almost all of the writer captured in this quick read had a love - hate vantage point for Hillary. As often as she was called a chameleon or deemed as having multiple personality disorder, do the writers in these stories take multiple vantage points about Hillary. It seems that they do not have a strong sense of who Hillary "really" is.

My favorite short story about Hillary was, Lorrie Moore's, Boy and Girls. Moore observations are entertaining as well as thought provoking. I thought that Moore's statement, "Strangely, there is this to be said about Hillary Clinton: I often hear her defended better by men than by women. Men see her as a victim of sexism. Women less so." Actually, I don't know if I necessarily agree with her reasoning behind why men are better defenders of Hillary than women, but I do think that women of different generations have thing that draw them to her, while at the same time feel alienated by her. The question becomes, what is it going to take to get us to fully get behind Hillary, even if we think she could be a good leader (and I fully accept the legitimate arguments with her politics or voting stances: I have them too).

My personal observations for this common, but unique uncertainty of Hillary is:

Women of Hillary's generation and older appreciate her as a female doing a mans job better than most men, but cannot connect with her on her post feminism feminist vantage. Also, many older women might view her as a risk -- if she looses, then they loose -- all of their accomplishment for moving equality forward. And again as we have discussed before in class, women are tougher on women, and hold them to a higher unobtainable standard.

Women of my generation also appreciate Hillary for her determination and strength to "go where no women has gone before." Many young women have this type of burning desire within themselves as well. But, post feminism feminist, are not looking at Hillary as a women candidate on the surface (or at least that is what they tell themselves) -- secretly, I think that they are judging her on the same impossible expectations discussed above.

Each of these stories has a glimmer of this (hidden) standard that women hold other women -- especially women of power by. Hopefully women will not be their own determent when it comes to increasing women in leadership roles across all professions.