Today I am thinking about the intensely personal nature of -isms. Mostly about sexism and racism.
These are the two -isms that we talk about the most. Both of these -isms have been highly visible in the democratic primary.
I realized early on that I had a very personal, very emotional investment in Hillary Clinton. Politically speaking, I preferred others – but they were both white men. As a woman, I am consistently left out of phrases and writings (because “man” is not a gender-free word, and it does not include me). But I don’t talk about that much. I don’t know why, I just don’t. Maybe because I worry that if I voice concerns about gender and women being considered lesser, I’ll be considered self-serving or judgmental or…even worse…an overly-emotional female. (Even as I type this, I worry about these comments I can already see my readers’ fingers typing…)
Sigh.
So I don’t talk about gender much. And I didn’t even talk about gender and Clinton very much, even as it was clear that the media approached her campaign very differently than the mens’ campaigns.
Racism and sexism are insidious in America. And I’m tired of it. If president, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would do good things. If president, both would make substantial in-roads against the inherent sexism or racism in America. And that would be a good thing either way.
But I’m still deeply saddened that my two young daughters won’t grow up seeing a woman leading their country.
