Carly And Lynn – At It Again!
November 21, 2009
by Contributor
It’s now been a year since the 2008 elections have been
over
and almost two years since the politicking for it took off. We all remember the early primaries. I, and many of you, can sadly recall the moment when we realized that Hillary Clinton was in some serious trouble from the sexists in the Democratic Party. We didn’t even know about Sarah Palin yet.
It’s instructive and actually exhilarating to look back at it all now. Yes it was devastating and horrifying to watch in disbelief as the sexism and misogyny flowed forth unchallenged by the party that was supposed to support women, and by the very women’s groups we had entrusted with protecting us from this nonsense.
But it was awesome to see us come out of the woodwork, find our voices, and change the national conversation. The New Agenda has been at the lead of this dialogue. When we came together on August 11, 2008 we knew we had to be a game changer. The fight for women’s rights and equality required a new chapter to be written. We first needed to start calling out the media for its ugly sexism. We also needed to find a way to bring all of us together and stop the tactics that have been used to divide us. We started to talk about most of the women, voting for most of the women, most of the time as a way to regain our powerful voices.
Today, a scant 15 months later, you can’t turn on a TV, read a blog, or go on facebook without running into a conversation about sexism, feminism, and women’s rights. Everyone’s jumped into that soiree. Fascinating points are being made—-real hope is in the air on the subject of women’s rights.
I am struck, as a 57-year old mother, by how effectively we taught our daughters that they could be anything they wanted and could go as far as their ambitions and dreams could carry them. Unfortunately, we discovered that although that was our message of hope, we hadn’t finished the work required to deliver on those promises.
With all of those ideas running through my head, I turned on Fox and Friends yesterday morning as I started my morning workout and there were my two friends Carly Fiorina and Lynn Rothschild. It was great to see them together—-we’d become friends during the urgent rush of the 2008 campaigns. Those two had become eloquent spokespeople for the unfolding drama brought about by the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. If you haven’t seen this clip yet, you’ll enjoy hearing how things look to them from the vantage point of today.
A simple thing that Carly Fiorina said really lifted me up. I’m not one to wring my hands much—I’d much rather spring to action and improve things. But I have been so beside myself about the attacks on Sarah Palin and feeling a little powerless, to be honest. Fiorina said basically this: okay ladies, let’s just acknowledge that women are going to have a harder row to hoe because of the sexism that we will encounter. It’s awful and it’s wrong. HOWEVER, it doesn’t mean that we can’t rise above it and succeed anyway. I was like —oh yes, DUH? Of course we can!!!
My mentor, Mary Kay, made the bumble bee a very special symbol for us. She always said that women were like the bumblebee—–aerodynamically the bee shouldn’t be able to fly because its wings are much too small for its body mass. But the bee goes right ahead and flies anyway. And so it is with women. We are constantly being told what we can’t do, and we go ahead and do it anyway.
Anyway—-enjoy this clip from yesterday, and tell me what you think……..
After the 2008 conventions, I admired the way Hillary refused to take the bait over and over to personally criticize Palin. Unlike so many self-professed feminists we see as public figures, Hillary is the real thing. She understands the importance of women active at all levels of our society and the need to stop sexist attacks, regardless of who is being attacked and what you think of their political views.
My eyes were opened to the Democratic party’s patriarchal, self-serving attitude toward women in 2008. I will never forget the way so many female public figures of the party flocked to support Obama during the primaries, even when it was not critical that they take any stand at all. When Obama was running, we would hear repeatedly how historic it would be to have an African-American president. But during the primaries, how often did we hear how historic it would be to have a female president?
That Fox news clip was great! Thanks.
What a trip down memory lane. I’m so proud that they are still out there talking about it. And us too!
Thank you so much for this clip! It was great to see.
Couple of days ago I was wondering what Lady Lynn Rothschild was up to and then I come to here and you have this great clip! She was great supporter of Hillary and I was impressed with her courage to support Sarah as well. I have great respect for the Lady.
Great to see Carly as well. I know less about her, but during the campaign saw her a little and look forward to learning more.
So thanks for the clip!
[...] Lady Rothschild is back!!!!! She and Fiorina on sexism in public life. [...]
Excellent synopsis, Cynthia.
Carly and Lynn are my heroes… along with Hillary and Sarah.
Tweeting and blogging your entry today.
“…how effectively we taught our daughters that they could be anything they wanted and could go as far as their ambitions and dreams could carry them. Unfortunately, we discovered that although that was our message of hope, we hadn’t finished the work required to deliver on those promises.”
I like this article, but disagree with the above sentence. I don’t think it was up to us to do and finish all the “work” – even if we HAD finished all the work, subsequent generations would still need to not take their rights for granted and keep reinforcing them. I think the onus is on the current generation for dropping the ball.
If we’re at fault for something, perhaps it is that we didn’t tell them to keep fighting – some assumption on our generation’s part that we were supposed to and had “finished the work”, and nothing more would need to be reinforced. It has never stopped being a patriarchy; therefore, the work is NEVER done. The younger generation needs to learn their history and pick up the ball, IMO!
Leave your response!