Goodbye, indeed.

Some readers have asked us to devote a post to Robin Morgan’s recent essay on Hillary Clinton. I think we’ve actually addressed in previous posts a lot of the issues Morgan raises. But there’s one section in particular I wanted to respond to:

Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous “Obama Girl� flaunting her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it wasn’t her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and dictated the clothes, which she said “made me feel like a dork.�
Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking “what if she’s not electable?� or “maybe it’s post-feminism and whoooosh we’re already free.� Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, “I could have saved thousands—if only I’d been able to convince them they were slaves.�

This is all incredibly offensive to me — not because of who I support in the presidential primary, but because of who I am. A younger woman. A younger feminist woman.
The above section of Morgan’s essay is incredibly condescending. It completely fails to recognize that there are a variety of valid reasons younger women might decide to support Obama. Not because they think the “Obama Girl” video is empowering. (Uh, to the contrary.) Not because their boyfriends told them it wasn’t cool to vote for Hillary. Not because they’re “post-feminist.” Not because they are in denial about the existence of sexism. Because they’ve taken a look at his position on the issues and decided that he would make the best president.
This crap is merely annoying when it comes from the mainstream media. It’s really disappointing and hurtful when it comes from within the women’s movement.
I know there are feminists of all ages who are Clinton supporters who don’t feel this way about their fellow feminists who have chosen to support Obama. They realize that voting for Obama does not mean turning your back on the astounding, amazing, hard-won battles fought by feminists in previous decades. And they know that, as Hillary Clinton said, “Women’s rights are human rights. Among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.â€? Even if certain feminist leaders don’t like what you have to say.