Tell It, Sister

So I got FLATTENED last week by the nastiest case of food poisoning ever. It was my first time poisoning myself, and I'll be so glad not to ever do that again. Just as a public service announcement: if you ever buy a box of mushrooms and some of them look a little iffy, do NOT just take out the iffy ones and assume the rest will be OK because the box is new....

In honor of Valentine's Day approaching, let me just take a moment to give a shout-out to my husband Jose, who cleaned the bathroom after I spent an entire night dying of barfness. Some women get flowers--I know my husband loves me because he cleaned that vomit crime scene of a mess so I wouldn't have to wake up to it. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

I've been avoiding my blog lately, because I'm a political junkie, and it's REALLY HARD for me not to start spewing my opinion on the primaries all over this blog. And since this blog is intended for romance readers, that's probably the last thing I should be doing. But a friend recently sent me a wonderful essay by Robin Morgan, and it's too good to ignore.

Let me preface this little excerpt from Robin's blog by saying that my husband and I are political opposites--sort of. He's been drifting in my general direction lately, but there are some issues on which he remains steadfastly ... OTHER than where I am. But we have some interesting and illuminating discussions, and I find that we agree more often than I would have thought possible. When two people aren't extremists of any kind and are willing to listen to each other and contribute ideas, interesting things happen. Which is a long-winded way of saying that whatever your political POV is, I respect it and figure I could probably learn from it, too. As long as you aren't a bigoted extremist wingnut, that is.

So anyway, Robin Morgan posted a blog at the Women's Media Center about why she's voting for Hillary Clinton. I KNOW, half of you just started getting your inner Edvard Munsch on. Get over it ... I'm not going to start proselytizing for the Senator from New York. But what I have found interesting ever since I watched Pat Schroeder run for president (and crash spectacularly in a flood of tears) is how the media treat women candidates as opposed to male candidates. Whatever you think of Hillary, her politics, her family, her track record, none of us should stand for the kind of flagrant sexism I'm seeing today--all to reminiscient of what I saw during Pat Schroeder's brief run. Post-feminism my big Latin booty--we need to kick it old-school and raise our voice whenever a woman candidate, be she a Clinton or a Rice, a Dole or a Schroeder, has to stand for sign-wavers who tell her she should iron their shirt.

Robin Morgan writes:

Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .

Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary’s “thick ankles.” Nixon-trickster Roger Stone’s new Hillary-hating 527 group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (check the capital letters). John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?" with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame.

Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged—and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.

Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan “If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!” Shame.

Goodbye to Comedy Central’s “Southpark” featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC’s vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.

Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?

I feel safe posting this here, because none of us should base our vote on gender. Vote for the person whose stances and plans best reflect the America you would like to see. But don't let anyone put us down because we're women, either--any of us. Our daughters are counting on us to stand together against of this kind of sociopathic behavior now, so the road is free and clear for them to run for President when they are older, should they so choose.