"NOW and other mainstream women’s organizations have been eagerly anticipating her 2016 candidacy. Clinton and supporters have recently stepped up efforts to portray her as a champion of bothwomen’s and LGBT rights.
Such depictions have little basis in Clinton’s past performance. While she has indeed spoken about gender and sexual rights with considerable frequency, and while she may not share the overtly misogynistic and anti-LGBT views of most Republican politicians, as a policymaker she has consistently favored policies devastating to women and LGBT persons.
Why, then, does she continue to enjoy such support from self-identified feminists? Part of the answer surely lies in the barrage of sexist attacks that have targeted her and the understandable desire of many feminists to see a woman in the Oval Office.
But that’s not the whole story. We suggest that feminist enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton is reflective of a profound crisis of US liberal feminism, which has long embraced or accepted capitalism, racism, empire, and even heterosexism and transphobia...
A more robust vision of feminism doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t defend women like Hillary Clinton against sexist attacks: we should, just as we defend Barack Obama against racist ones. But it does mean that we must listen to the voices of the most marginalized women and gender and sexual minorities — many of whom are extremely critical of Clintonite feminism — and act in solidarity with movements that seek equity in all realms of life and for all people."
(honestly, if you aren't an international relations junkie, I would read the first section and then skim until "The Feminists Not Invited"; too many details to absorb, for me)
She's sort of, yes, all of the problematic things about America's position in the world and the dominant themes of American politics. But also, I can't figure out what the 'else' is - like, who else would I want from the Democrat side? Would I want someone on the Republican side? Is there someone with my all politics who is running symbolically - and could anything really be achieved by supporting them?
And there is a lot in me that wants a female president. I want to see everyone figure out how to change their pronouns; I want to see that society-wide shift in unconscious understandings of what is possible, how many testicles you need to be a Leader. I want the First Lady exhibits to struggle with what to do with someone who is also the President, how to handle the treatment of First Ladies as sort of political-barbies next to their princely President husbands. I want Bill in a First-spouses exhibit. I just want to see how people deal with that.
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