Hillary Clinton and Misogyny

I was listening to a progressive, radio talk show. A lady was allowed to speak by the imperious host who plays off the calls of phone-ins, using them like the bird in badminton. At least he (selectively) asked the most important, five-word question any reporter should be a master of, and so very rarely heard. (Most ask half-assked questions.)

The caller said she hears much misogynistic treatment of Hillary Clinton.

“How do you know that?” (Five words few reporters use.) “Give me an example!” The imperative mood. Commanding.

“I can’t put my finger on it. But I hear it and my husband hears it, too.”

I knew immediately what the two of them on the radio did not. Most people fail at understanding the elements of verbal and nonverbal behavior. That’s where the answer lay. Tone of voice. Facial expressions. Body orientation. In language, signal words. What do you hear people say? Hillary is an unlikeable person,

“Why do you think people say they do not like you, Sen. Clinton?”

What we have here is Elizabethan Theatre. Boys took the roles of the girl, or woman. Some of the best Brit comedy comes from males dressing as women and putting out the falsetto voice. (See “Monty Python”.) Outrageous! Not “Shakespeare in Love” where the girl imitates a boy imitating a girl. A woman for the first time in American political history is playing the role of President in a campaign, Commander-in-Chief. The male sounds and language coming out of her mouth is strange to many, tough, hard edged, commandeering, domineering, emphatic. It tells me that most people do not accept the accustomed presidentail language and posture coming from a woman, and they also did not know until now how the male presidents made their noises sound  male. By contrast do we learn. Obama’s voice has a pleasant baritone that goes a long way to persuade.

There are many more dimensions of presentation that lead to misogyny. How much and how long have North American women been kept out of political discussion as a “family value”? The “Suffragettes” made bold sounds and demands not too long ago. Men made the same slights then that we hear now, not always verbally. Mostly by the snorts of paralanguage and a wave of the hand.

I believe that the atmosphere most putting Hillary’s bid in peril is the over-arching sounds and smells of misogyny, and the signal word is, “Unlikeable”.