Washington: You would think Hillary Clinton's one of the leading contenders of the US Presidential elections that would embody a 'feminist victory'. A woman long described by certain conservatives as a 'femin-nazi' is now a viable candidate for the President of the United States. But, you'd be wrong.
"People feel Hillary Clinton has tried too hard to be like a man," Susan Douglas of the University of Michigan says. A feminist author, Susan says she's taken on a 'mantle of political masculinity' — especially when it comes to her stance on war.
"I think it was time to say enough is enough," Hillary would say of the war.
Some would say 'tough' is an attractive quality post 9/11, but feminist and film-maker Nora Ephron says Clinton "currently takes the utterly lame, testosterone-driven position that we should have gone in with more troops."
"Oh, I would give anything to marry Walter," Ephron would remind this Hillary quote.
Ephron — whose film Sleepless in Seattle very successfully captured what women wanted in the '80s — didn't always feel that way. She once loved Hillary Clinton so much that she said: "(Hillary) would have to burn down the White House before I would say anything bad about her."
But, to Ephron and to some other feminists, Clinton has lost her 'mantle of political feminism'. CNN couldn't reach activist Jane Fonda, but quoted in TV Weekly she goes as far as to say: "It may be a feminist. Progressive man would do better in the White House than a ventriloquist for the patriarchy with a skirt and a v#@%#A."
The underlying fear is that Clinton will make the same mistakes as a macho George W Bush. "Feminism was not about being more like the guys, it was really about challenging patriarchy and making our society more humane," Susan Douglas points out.
As feminist columnist Anna Quindlen puts it, Clinton doesn't quite capture the fantasy of being "authoritative and down to earth in equal measure."
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