Title IX... Title IX... Title IX Monday, June 2, 2008
Last night, in the middle of an evening dominated by the R's, I was almost happy to watch Hillary Clinton throw a ticker-tape parade for herself for winning a 'participant' ribbon in the Florida Dem Primary. It was the ultimate soccer mom event -- a celebration for someone who won a game in which scoring isn't allowed. On the way back to her campaign jet, Senator Clinton stopped at a pawn shop and bought herself a couple of bowling trophies.
Barry Crimmins/ Jan 30, 2008
On Saturday Hillary Clinton's true believers demanded justice for their candidate. What they wanted was the full benefit of the uncompromised compromised results from the MichFlaw primaries. Those gains would then be added to a dizzying mixture of numbers that would be used, as sports media columnist Phil Mushnick once put it, to "prove umbrellas cause rain."
Alas, Mrs. Clinton was not awarded the entire MichFlaw pie so that she could smash it in the face of reality. This prompted some of her supporters to threaten to trash the Democratic Convention and a few even held an impromptu John McCain rally. Some also threw temper tantrums. The most memorable was pitched by an older woman who was sobbing uncontrollably while CNN interviewed her. She said she was so upset because she "just... cares... so... much... about... democraceeeeeee... BWAAAAH... BOOHOO." OK the quote isn't exact but it is the best I can do and it certainly doesn't exaggerate anything.
The exasperated woman doesn't seem to understand a key element of democracy-- sometimes your candidate doesn't win. (In my case it's: usually your candidate doesn't win.)
Watching the sobbing woman made me think that it was a shame that Title IX came along so late in our history. Maybe if she had grown up in a world where more girls got to play sports, just like the boys, the weeping woman would understand a little more about winning and losing. Maybe, because of a lifetime living in patriarchally-imposed imbalance, she looks at this race as the only chance for long overdue reparations. People who lose what they see as their one chance understandably freak out.
But the fact is that a Clinton loss is not the end of women as presidential aspirants, it's the beginning. Women didn't lose this nomination, Hillary Clinton did. And if she properly owns up to her loss, her supporters will begin to think about moving on. And they will begin to see there is still plenty to push for.
Don't get me wrong about the sports thing: most women understand winning and losing just fine, probably better than I do. But generations of females were cheated out of experiencing wins and losses on the playing field, in front of a crowd. Most of the most angry and frustrated Clinton supporters I have seen look like they came of age back when the girls either played field hockey or led cheers. I am of the same age and remember how the girls were sentenced to boredom when the boys were allowed to have serious fun. It was just one indication of a profoundly misogynist society and it cheated a lot of women out of experiences that many others take for granted. Maybe the lessons they didn't get a chance to learn are now showing, at least a bit.
Sports reside among the dopiest wastes of time in America -- and that's saying something. But in
Athletics offer physical activity beyond that required to reach for the potato chips. They teach the merits of teamwork, effort, accountability, humility and graciousness. Teamwork develops the understanding of the rewards of cooperative endeavor. Effort is the investment one makes for the good of the endeavor. If you get beaten on a play or lose a game, that's where accountability comes in. It's also where you must humbly acknowledge defeat while graciously conceding your opponent's success. In these immodest times, most of this stuff isn't too obvious on televised sports but on the scholastic level, it's still can be found.
There was never a better example of exemplary behavior on the playing field than this spring when two women carried a third around the bases in a college softball game. The woman needed to be carried because she blew out her knee after hitting a game-winning homerun. According to the rules, she could not be assisted by her own teammates. Since the woman had hit the homer fair and square, two members of the opposition saw their duty and carried their adversary to victory. Without Title IX, that tremendous story never happens.
Some of Mrs. Clinton's supporters don't seem to understand that when the New York senator entered the contest for president, she was laying something on the line. Something that could be lost -- and the degree of that loss would become more severe if she didn't comport herself with the dignity of a worthy competitor. Still, her candidacy seemed a wise wager because Senator Clinton because she had a huge edge in fund-raising, name recognition and political machinery. Her campaign's initial strategy, to package her as Hillary the Inevitable, reflected both confidence and arrogance. When the Iowa Caucus went Barack Obama's way, we heard the first hints of Team Hillary's Plan B -- instead of Hillary the Inevitable, she became Hillary the Victim.
But as any jamoke who calls sports radio talk shows could tell you, she was really just Hillary the Sore Loser. (And when you reach the point where such clowns have a point, you've fucked up badly.) When she lost a state it was because caucuses aren't fair or because the state didn't matter or because unhealthy numbers of African-Americans voted just like they did when Jesse Jackson ran back in the 80's. Eventually, when she had blown the nine-figure war chest ultimate insider Terry McAuliffe had filled for her, she lost because she was at a financial disadvantage. And whenever she lost, it was always, always, always because the media was against her.
All of this alibiing prompted Clinton supporters to pick up the banner of Hillary the Victim and run with it. The candidate paid lip service to carrying on but never missed a chance to inflame the fans , harness collective frustration and use it to her advantage. It's so much easier to write off losses to unfairness than it is to to analyze why you failed and make amends. In the end, the only amends Mrs. Clinton made involved repainting her multi-millionaire self as a woman of the people -- and a woman of the white people, at that! (Except of course in the crucial swing- territory of Puerto Rico where she won big in a tiny turnout.)
She never lost because the voters liked the other candidate more. She never suffered a single defeat because her opponent was better organized and ran a great race. She never lost because voters preferred Barack Obama's message of "We! We! We!" to her message of "Me! Me! Me!" And she was never defeated because many people wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton if she were the last person on Earth. And none of the people who feel that way could possibly be feminists. After all, what kind of self-respecting feminist wouldn't support a woman who helped her man character-assassinate all the young women with whom he'd had power-imbalanced affairs?
Then Geraldine Ferraro chimed in to tell us that Clinton was fighting not only sexism, but (get this!) she was confronting an opponent who has an unfair advantage because he's black! And you thought you'd never hear anything more ridiculous than "clean coal!"
Mrs. Clinton nurtured the "we wuz robbed" mentality by again and again lacking the sportsmanship (or if you prefer, sportspersonship and that's fine by me) to walk out into the bright lights, clear her throat and acknowledge defeat... after defeat.... after defeat. Her avoidance of this traditional political gesture has helped create supporters who are now exhibiting Branch Davidian siege mentalities -- a dangerous move when anyone named "Clinton" is around.
You have to wonder how surprised these Clinton diehards will be when Senator Clinton finally does concede defeat. I wonder what they'll make of the fact that she's laying off much of her staff Tuesday. I suppose we'll hear that it's unfair because Hillary is losing her staff while Obama is taking on more help. Such injustice!
I don't know, maybe my whole sports and older women deal is as loopy as the math used to claim Sen Clinton is ahead in the popular vote. It sure could be but I'm just trying to make some sense out of some very unsportsperson-like conduct.
Update: I accidentally posted the wrong draft of this earlier. My fault!
