interesting (and controversial) post at Kos....

[Neecy]

First of all, I'm an Obama supporter and proud of it. But we should keep in mind this woman's story before we start heaping personal insults on Hillary. I understand what she's saying and while I don't agree with her solution it's not smart to burn bridges. I'm a woman over 40 and I've found some of the anti-Hillary stuff in here offensive at times, especially the gleeful crying threads.

You know the trigger point with me and I suspect boatloads of women like me? Experience. As in, we have it, but it's all slashed up and mixed in with having kids and supporting a husband's career and being shoved into crap jobs and discounted for not being real. There's an tremendous number of us who have been passed over for promotions and forced to pass up opportunities because we were women, because we came to the game too late, because we couldn't pick up stakes and follow our star because our kids and parents needed us where we were.

But many of us are SMART, dammit, we are EXPERIENCED and we are QUALIFIED -- but then as soon as some great opportunity is right in front of us, that we have finally earned the chops to take on -- uh oh, we're too old, it's time for energy and change, we need some fresh ideas now, sorry.

And if you want to see a middle aged woman jump like a pithed frog, tell her experience, especially a middle aged woman's set of unconventional experiences that she fought like a dog to pull together don't count and don't matter as much as youth and energy...

I've lost count of the number of times I've been hurt and insulted by the rhetoric coming out of the Obama campaign, aimed at Hillary that ricochets and hits me. Experience doesn't matter. Unconventional experience is not real experience. If your husband is a dumbass so are you. You've f$cked things up so bad only young people can fix them. Your stupid because you watch the Hallmark Channel. You don't understand the real issues. Your marraige says more about you than your own accomplishments. If you cry you must be weak. If you cry you must be unstable. If you cry you must be putting it on to get attention. If you show emotion you can't be trusted. Your ambition is unattractive. Your ambition is suspect. you've worked hard and accomplished things, but those accomplishments are now irrelevant. All tough women are ball-busters.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/7/62957/72680/846/451737

There are sensitivities here and they all need to be respected. Fight on issues but the personal stuff on both sides needs to be ratcheted down.

[tyne]

1. Agreed.

[Uncle Sinister]

2. Both my mom and my wife were tough, smart women who fought against barriers that society tried to..

impose on them. One of the things I loved and respected about both of them. I feel blessed to have grown up in a family that believed gender bias was wrong and ignorant. Certainly not all the Obama supporters here go to the gender thing, but enough do that it has really pissed me off.

I agree 100% with the dailykos post, thank for posting it.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Has this woman watched the entire New Hampshire episode where Hil turned on a dime to attack Obama?

If not, I suggest she watch it now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIG1mJAdMv8

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Yeah! Another opportunity to mention Tavris' book.

The Mismeasure of Woman

I highly recommend it for not just women, but men. I think both genders will appreciate what she has to say.