Ken Berwitz
Women serving in the Senate say Hillary Clinton is beingsubjected to an unfair, sexist double standard on the campaign trail.
Criticismsof Clinton\’s tone of voice have become prominent in recent weeks, stirringstrong feelings among Senate Democratic women who say they too have had to battlethe stereotype of the shrill female.
“She\’soften judged by a double standard,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), thedean of the Senate women.
“Many of wewomen feel that there\’s a double standard. What\’s being said about Hillary iswhat women have heard for centuries. You\’re too loud, you\’re too aggressive,you\’re too pushy. Why do you want the vote?”
Femalelawmakers were particularly galled by recent statements by Washington Postcolumnist Bob Woodward, one of the nation\’s most respected journalists,characterizing Clinton\’s tone as “screaming.”
“She shouts.There\’s something unrelaxed about the way she is communicating,” he said onMSNBC\’s “Morning Joe.”
The commentprompted the show\’s host, Joe Scarborough, to interject, “I was watching herand I said to myself, \’Has nobody told her how the microphone works?\'”
“I thinkwomen go through a magnifying glass that men do not. Look at [GOP presidentialfrontrunner Donald] Trump. Talk about braggadocio, talk about arrogance, talkabout shouting, talk about demeaning, talk about insulting. It\’s all there,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
When askedabout the perception that Clinton shouts, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) quipped, “unlike Bernie Sanders who’s so relaxed.”
“He shoutsthe whole time. Give me a break,” she said.
The New YorkTimes reviewed her performance at one debate as “tense and even angry attimes,” while The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza called her “hyperaggressive” at another debate. Frida Ghitis pointed out this trend in a columnshe wrote for CNN titled “The shrill smear against Hillary Clinton.”
-Does that mean we can\’t call Bernie Madoff a white collar thief, because he\’s Jewish and it plays to the stereotype of a thieving, money-grubbing Jew?-Should the feds have laid off John Gotti, because the accusations against him were a stereotype of Italian gangsters?-Will Bill Clinton now issue a statement that he didn\’t take out osama bin laden when he could have, years before 9/11, because it would have fed the stereotype of Arab terrorists?
