Don't think all the Hillary Clinton hullabaloo has gone unnoticed by the likes of me. Truth be told, I've been very busy at work this work, whereas my inner life has been consumed by a rage caused, for one, by the MPD's horrific, paramilitary-style antics, but also by the revelation that certain political conservatives hate older women.
OK, that's not entirely true. In a way, I'm happy Rush et al. so freely expressed their misogyny (and forgive me for failing to link to their rubbish). Now, I can forward their screeds to all my female relatives, thereby turning them into life-long Democrats.
You see, I don't think an ugly snapshot has necessarily ended Clinton's presidential bid. (Urg, how irritating that I just had to fight an urge to refer to her by first name!) Rather, I think aging-and being criticized for your physical characteristics-is something that profoundly affects each and every woman. Most of us were held under the microscope at an early age. In my case, the tormentors fixed on my massive head of unruly, frizzy hair. The offshoot is that I, and almost every other woman alive, have a particular sensitivity about my appearance. In fact, I spend an embarrassing amount of time in front of the bathroom mirror most mornings, just staring at the constellation of wrinkles that increasingly lines my face. But no matter how much we women preen, pluck, or otherwise tend to our looks, we're fully aware that these are essentially shallow pursuits. Being hot won't make us happy. It won't make us smart. Sure, we miss our beauty as it fades, but we don't necessarily miss all the catcalls a walk down the street would inspire when we were in our teens and early twenties. Looks aren't everything, guys! Pfft!!
Anyhoo, much as we women like attracting (and deflecting) positive male attention, we're also extremely sensitive to their mean-spirited attacks on our appearances. Look, Clinton looks a whole lot better than most of us look, or will look, at sixty years of age. Most women can only hope to look half this beautiful. Remember the way you reacted when your high-school boyfriend remarked that Winona Ryder looked sort of chubby in Heathers? Realizing she was, like, wa-ay thinner than you were, you then turned to him, clicked your tongue, and screamed at the top of your lungs: "That's just a roundabout way of calling me fat!" OK, so maybe that was just me ... But the point is this: An attack on one (of our faces) is an attack on all (of our faces). Heck, the way I see it, all those conservative blowhards just inspired a boatload of empathy from the 2008 presidential campaign's most important voting block: WOMEN!
P.S. Here's a thoughtful piece on the matter from Salon.com.