Hillary Clinton, fresh off of getting repeatedly interrupted by a man masquerading as a journalist, made a surprise appearance on Humans of New York today, discussing some of the misogyny she experienced while taking a law school admissions test in the mid-1960s. The big message behind the post—that women, unlike men, have to learn to control their emotions, much to their detriment—rings pretty true:
Though the HONY post got some backlash from haters (one commenter wrote: "Article continued: '..sometimes people think I'm cold, like when I left all those dudes to die in a foreign country. But they called me a woman so they deserved it'), a huge number of women who commented on the post echoed Clinton's experience, noting that there wouldn't be nearly as many negative comments had HONY not revealed exactly who the above story was about. "It's funny how a lot of times people will be so quick to call a woman 'cold' or 'aloof' but if a man has that same attitude he's 'driven','determined', 'has no time for games' and such," one commenter posted. Another wrote:
I took the law school admissions test the same year as Hillary, and I had the exact same experience. To some of the men in the exam room, it was unthinkable that a woman would want to (or maybe "be allowed to") become an attorney.
She is going through the same experience today, with some in our country unable to process the idea of a woman as President of these great United States. Based on everything I've learned in life, the only "job" that is limited by one's gender is giving birth to another human being. And, it is the MALE gender that's excluded there.
Clinton—who just last year commented on a HONY post about a gay teen— has been routinely criticized for being "too cold," and then "fake" and "calculating" when she's attempted to let a little emotion through. Perhaps she is uniquely icy, though people who've worked with her say that's not the case at all—but historically, female leaders have had to be tougher.
Women are more likely to be scrutinized for their mistakes than men, for one thing, and we've spent centuries battling accusations that our constitutions are weak, our emotions volatile, and our sensitivities blinding. Maybe this HONY appearance is just Clinton pandering for votes, but some of us spend a lot of time keeping our mouths shut for fear of seeming too dramatic, or overemotional, or demanding. It's nice to be reminded that no matter how many people don't like you in a world in which the game's set against you, you can still (PLEASE GOD) come out on top.
Anyway, some people requested Trump get his own HONY post, but thankfully that's not going to happen.
