To start off today’s lesson: the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’, as defined by academia:
Sex = the biological signification of femalehood or malehood
Gender = a social construct that exists outside of biology and the body; has more to do with subjective terms like ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ which can be applied to a person regardless of sex
so why is Salon saying that Hillary is the male-gendered candidate while Obama is the female one?
Bill has started thinking about what his role will be when he returns to the White House– not as the ou
r political leader in charge, but as her devoted husband. As this NYT article points out, the main change will be that he will not continue working; instead, he will pay his expenses out of the Clinton savings account and focus on representing the United States of America by Hillary’s side. He seems to be handling his journey from democratic frontman to the weaker half of a political dyad quite well; who knows, maybe having the charismatic lady-killer focus on PR while his less scandal-prone wife runs the country would turn out to be a stupendous idea?
This unique Clinton dilemma– a former President’s return to the White House as an unelected sidekick– made me wonder how ‘first husbands’ in other parts of the globe choose to adopt to and treat their newfound roles.
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