Times' online columnist Judith Warner has returned from book leave with unspent anger, judging by "Women [1]in Charge, Women Who Charge [1]," ranting over Hillary's loss by lamenting the runaway sexism in the media and making a hard-to-follow argument against "Sex in the City" for not being angry and feminist enough (now that would sell some tickets).
It's a cultural moment that Andrew Stephen, writing with an outsider's eye for the British magazine the New Statesman last month, characterized as a time of "gloating, unshackled sexism of the ugliest kind." A moment in which things like the formation of a Hillary-bashing political action group, "Citizens United Not Timid," a "South Park" episode featuring a nuclear weapon hidden in Clinton's vagina, and Internet sales of a Hillary Clinton nutcracker with shark-like teeth between her legs, passed largely without mainstream media notice, largely, perhaps, because some of the key gatekeepers of mainstream opinion were so busy coming up with various iterations of the nutcracker theme themselves.
If Warner thinks the crude cartoon "South Park" was rough on Hillary, what does she think of the show's treatment of Al Gore (hunting "ManBearPig") and John F. Kennedy (pictured in hell with Adolf Hitler during that classic number "Christmastime in Hell")?
But 16 months of sustained misogyny? Hey - she asked for it. With that voice, ("When Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear, 'Take out the garbage'" Fox News regular Marc Rudov, author of "Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables," said in January). With that ambition, and that dogged determination ("like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court," according to MSNBC commentator Mike Barnicle) and, of course, that husband (Chris Matthews: "The reason she's a U.S. Senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around."). Clearly, in an age when the dangers and indignities of Driving While Black are well-acknowledged, and properly condemned, Striving While Female - if it goes too far and looks too real - is still held to be a crime.
Surely Warner isn't arguing that Hillary wouldhave gotten this farwithout being Bill Clinton's wife.
Also keep in mind it was one of Hillary's media supporters, Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live, that made "bitch is the new black" and "bitches gets stuff done" as pro-Clinton rallying cries in February. Then cast your mind back to the million or so times female conservatives Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin have been treated far worse by the ostensibly feminist left.