Responses
Jong, Erica
Zelda Bronstein finds it odd that feminists like me, Anna Quindlen, Ellen Goodman, Katha Pollitt, and Blanche Weisen Cook would be delighted to have a First Lady like Hillary Rodham Clinton...
...I find it odd that she finds it odd...
...I fervently wanted to give Hillary Clinton the support I have not always been given by feminists...
...Zelda Bronstein finds it odd that feminists like me, Anna Quindlen, Ellen Goodman, Katha Pollitt, and Blanche Weisen Cook would be delighted to have a First Lady like Hillary Rodham Clinton after twelve years of Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush...
...HMOs have now become so greedy that they are inviting the regulation that will eventually bring them down...
...When we have advanced to equality, we will perhaps be able to sacrifice our heroines...
...She still deserves respect for putting health care on the national agenda—even if she failed...
...Being in power means compromise...
...The left, feminists included, usually winds up out of power because of an inability to compromise...
...I admired the First Lady and wanted to give her the strength that admiration confers...
...Sick of a so-called feminism that found endless reasons for women to trash other women, we wanted to show our sisterly support...
...While I was anything but uncritical of her either in the Nation or in the longer piece I wrote for the Sunday Times of London, I thought it was important to present my criticisms in the spirit of affirmation...
...I know how hard it is for any woman to be public without mouthing platitudes of nineteenth-century femininity...
...We were inclined to be generous to the president's wife because we knew how much guts it takes to publicly refuse to be a female eunuch...
...Our feet hurt, and so, we assumed, did hers...
...And when I said "politically naive," I meant that both Clintons underestimated the power of the insurance companies and other corporate giants who support the status quo...
...I still do...
...We knew because we had walked in her high-heeled shoes...
...But Hillary Rodham Clinton's efforts will not be entirely in vain...
...Her successor will succeed—eventually...
...I know how dire is the punishment for being a female pioneer...
...For the moment we need all we can get...
...How can feminists both bash Hillary Clinton and support her...
...Being in opposition allows for the luxury of nitpicking...
...It was about time that the White House looked like America...
...I want to remind Zelda Bronstein that we are still in the dawn of time where gender equity is concerned...
...Copyright © Erica Mann Jong, 1997 SUMMER • 1997 • 99...
...Both Clintons promised things they couldn't deliver and lost a lot of respect in the process...
...There she was, juggling family and career, being the main breadwinner, refusing to hide her considerable brain, and telling her husband exactly what she thought...
...The wheels of politics grind exceedingly slow...
...I wanted to set an example of sisterhood...
...Ours was an emotional reaction that grew even more emotional when we saw the media try to destroy Hillary Clinton for being exactly like us...
...I know how horrid women—feminists included— can be to other women...
...When I said that Hillary didn't shrink from policy issues, I meant the health care issue...
...I know how hatefully misogynistic the media can be...
...So accustomed were we to presidents' wives who ran the White House with the aid of astrologers or refrained from influencing their husbands on the issue of reproductive choice that we were thrilled to see a woman of our own inclinations in the White House...
...Politics is the art of compromise...
...But that Hillary Clinton had taken on an almost-impossible task was also clear...
Vol. 44 • July 1997 • No. 3
