Opinion - News Analysis   

Misogynist conspiracy against Hillary Clinton

Zoe Williams

The reporter who blew open Watergate is part of the conspiracy.

ALL YOU ever read about Hillary Clinton is how the American electorate hates her, and yet the only reason you are reading about her in the first place is that she is, in effect, 50 per cent of the candidacy for leadership of the Democratic party. Somebody, surely, must like her. It cannot just be the Internet. Is the Net even allowed to vote?

Carl Bernstein is dishing the dirt in his coming unauthorised biography, entitled A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Bernstein is now known as "the one played by Dustin Hoffman" in the Watergate film. He claims to have the unexpurgated truth, culled from 200 sources — one of which is Ms. Clinton's closest confidante, Diane Blair. Or rather not the woman herself; she (and now you can wince) died of lung cancer seven years ago. Mr. Bernstein has filleted her papers and personal effects, which are being sorted for the University of Arkansas library. He stops short of calling Ms. Clinton a liar, apparently, but suggests that she played fast and loose with the truth. Well come on then, how would the truth look if she had played slower and tighter?

The gobbet that is meant to stir us up and keep us going until publication next month is this: contrary to what she's said, she did know about Bill and his affair with Gennifer Flowers. Or at least, she probably knew. This is according to an uncredited writer who has followed her career closely. "She always knew about her. Anyone who has approached the subject of Hillary Clinton with a clear eye will run across many examples of stories that are not true."

It is a tricky one, isn't it? Maybe she did know, but there might be a question mark over how she knew — was it actual information, or a hunch? When exactly should she have announced that she knew, in order to keep her veracity slate clean in the eyes of the voting public? When she'd got hold of some DNA evidence, or just when he came home with a naughty look on his face? Never mind that this is his transgression, not hers. Never mind that he paid his debt some time ago, as I think even the most stalwart conservative would agree. How can this possibly be a relevant test of her, as a person or as a politician?

The whole book, ranging across "everything" from Ms. Clinton's "complex relationship with her disciplinarian father" to "her courtship with Bill Clinton and the amazing dynamic of their marriage, during the most trying of circumstances," is a slur on Ms. Clinton, refracting her through the prism of the men around her to a nexus of feminine roles: daughter, wife, blah.

The greatest outrage is that the next accusation will be that she isn't a "heavyweight." Misogynist opinion sees no contradiction in reducing any given woman to a series of soap opera and/or biological roles — and then, using this as "evidence," levelling at her the charge that she isn't serious-minded!

The same has happened to Segolene Royal, the socialist contender for the French presidency, who has found members of her own party incapable of comprehending how someone can both be a mother and understand foreign policy.

In the U.K., our tabloids are still capable of this sort of thing, but in the U.K. Parliament, in soi-disant quality journalism and publishing, it would be laughed off the page. At the risk of unseemly nationalism, it's worth remembering how far the British have come. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Beyond the admission imbroglio
Not all Islamists are the same
Second term for President: history, numbers, and alignments
How is the President elected?
Something good may come of Olmert's failure
Corrections and Clarifications
Misogynist conspiracy against Hillary Clinton
Mockery of law
Bush's veto
New party
Hydel projects
Taking Dhaka did not figure in Manekshaw's plans: General Jacob

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu