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?
When you think of religious voters, what party affiliation comes to mind?
It’s certainly not Democratic. Hillary Clinton, like other Dems, has realized that the Republicans have had a hold on the religious demographic for far too long, and is trying to change this. Obama has already been talking more openly about the role his Christian faith plays in his life for a while now, and it seems Hillary is now following suite.
The New York Times recently featured an article about Hillary’s faith. The article states that Hillary’s new religious overtures just might work to win over centrist voters, but will do very little with religious conservatives. Some of the tactics that Hillary is trying include talking about her faith (ie, how she carries a bible with her when she travels), hiring Burn Strider, an evangelical christian to do religious outreach, and speaking to religous opponents of abortion to show her respect for their stance, while still being a firm supporter of abortion rights.
So how is the public reacting? Read the rest of this entry »
The official winner of Hillary Clinton’s campaign song contest is: “You and I” by Celine Dion. Personally, if she’s going there, I would have preferred “Power of the Dream” and even think the lyrics are more inspirational, but I’m willing to live with it.
Now, I think this whole thing is a bit silly. But I suppose as long as Celine is again making headlines, at least for today, we can indulge ourselves a bit.
Click here for Celine’s official fan site. Click with care, and be mindful not to enter the boutique website by mistake. Unless you want to, that’s your prerogative.
Next, some fun facts about Celine: in 2004, she became the Best-Selling Female Artist in the World; her first manager mortgaged his home in order to fund her first record because he believed in her that much, she studied english in 1989 to help her music career, and, lastly, “You and I” w as actually written by an advertising executive working for Air Canada while Dion was working for their promotional campaign. I must say, the song does make more sense in the context of flying than in politics… though these things can always be metaphorical.
To finish, I’ve got to ask: so do you think that by choosing this song Hillary’s campaign is trying to appeal more to female or male voters?
More and more, Bill Clinton’s name is being mentioned in connection with his wife’s candidacy for president. Hillary faces a major dilemma when deciding whether or not she should allow her husband to enter the spotlight with her. She must consider the following: will Bill’s legendarily charismatic presence overshadow hers, thereby preventing potential supporters from really getting to know her? On the other hand, Hillary and other democrats remember all too well what happened to Al Gore, who tried to distance himself from President Clinton during his campaign.
Clearly Team Hillary is not too afraid of using Bill, since he recently released a 5-minute video endorsing her candidacy and telling the story of her career in public service. This same video has already received strong criticism from Christian groups, because Hillary includes footage of herself with Mother Theresa in it. (see rest of post for video)
As Hillary continues to compete with Barack Obama in the campaign cash race, she has decided to focus more intensely on appealing to female voters. This Washington Post article by Matthew Mosk , sent to me by the lovely Ben, states that women usually contribute 27% of the money eventually raised in overall presidential elections.
In general, I think that women have been less numerous and less generous donors than men– I know that my coed prep school had a far larger endowment than my sister’s nearly identical single-sex prep school, and I have a feeling that this is true for many traditionally male vs. traditionally female colleges as well (although colleges currently do not allow statistics to be kept of donations given only by women).
So why do women give less money than men? And How will Hillary address this challenge?
Read the rest of this entry »
I was listening to NPR’s Talk of the Nation today, and one caller asked the question, “If Obama or Hillary Clinton ended up getting the Democratic nomination, would a joint ticket be possible?”
Read the rest of this entry »
…and discuss Hillary’s views on the issues most pertinent to this presidential campaign (according to ontheissues.org).
1) Clearly, the Big One: IRAQ
In October of 2002, Hillary voted to authorize the war in Iraq. Since then, she has become a critic of the way that Bush has handled (or mishandled) the war, but does not recant her vote (it is possible that she holds the course so decisively here because wants to avoid the stigma of a “flip-flopper” that plagued Kerry). Most recently, Hillary has become a proponent of a steady redeployment of troops from Iraq, calling on Iraq’s government to take a more proactive role in the own security. Hillary’s stance on Iraq gets her in trouble more than any of her other views– although she is a moderate Democrat, she often treads dangerously close to the Republican party line. Her stance is hardly what many liberals want to hear, and she is bound to lose a lot of voters here.
In this video, Hillary outlines her stance on Iraq: Read the rest of this entry »
There are two ways in which Hillary could conduct campaign strategy with regards to her gender: she, like other recently elected female politicians, could try to ignore or mitigate her gender and instead focus on issues that speak to her broadest base of voters; in other words, run her campaign as a male candidate would. Her second option would be to try and capitalize on her difference to garner support from voters that she would otherwise not be able to reach.
Hillary seems to be taking a two-pronged campaign strategy, combining both of the above approaches. On the one hand, she is attempting to downplay the fact that she is The Female Candidate, and instead emphasizing that she is running for office because she beleives that she is the best person, irrespective of gender, for the job. On the other hand, however, she is using her gender to play to a very specific audience: the female voter. For example, as the article mentioned below states, she “appears to be splitting the difference, playing up domestic issues that could have a special appeal to women without presenting them as such”.
Read the rest of this entry »
are we ready? 