Feminism in the Age of Now

"What! You're not voting for Hillary? But I thought you were such a feminist!"

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times. So let me explain why I'm not voting with my vagina...

As a feminist, I believe nurturing and nourishing a world trying to be born is the most efficient way to counter the malevolent effects of a world that needs to pass away.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I believe inclusion is more powerful and life producing than is exclusion.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I believe tending and mending is a more effective way to deal with the world's stress points than is fighting or fleeing.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I believe having a vision for what I want the world to become is as important as solving problems that have arisen in the world that is.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I'm more concerned with creating a world my great-great-grandchildren can live in than in trying to make things better for me right now.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I am convinced that building authentic relationships is a more lasting, creative way to build peace than just strategizing to destroy enemies and manipulate alliances.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I relate more to the honest sharing of a wife who sometimes misses a note, than to the too-scripted sharing of a woman who never does.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I look forward to voting for the first woman president; but when I do, I want her to be one whose positions and policies reflect a feminine worldview.

That is why I support Obama.

As a feminist, I get that masculine armor is not our strength, our ability to love is our greatest power, and our urge to repair is our greatest calling.

That is why I support Obama, pray for him unceasingly, work to strengthen his chances....and will support whoever wins.

Comments

[Brittday]

Don't vote with your vagina or your breasts. Vote with your brain and vote Hillary Clinton.

Rousing speeches do not make a president. It is too soon for Barack. Who has the experience? Who has full command of policy? Hillary Clinton

You only have to watch the debates to know that only Hillary has the intellectual capabilites and understanding to find effective solutions to the myriad of problems this country faces.

Don't vote for someone because they make you feel good - be smart (like Hillary). Vote for someone who is qualified and will get the job done. Hillary Clinton

Rational thinking should prevail not warm fuzzy sentiment. Vote Hillary Clinton

[m4me08]

What experience are you talking about? She is 14 years older than him and he has more legislative experience than her (8yrs in Il before heading to DC). In that time he not only introduced more substantial bills than she ever has...he got them passed. She has not shown me she can accomplish anything worthwhile. Just a bunch of meaningless goobly-goop.

[1dogs2]

Hear, hear! Well said.

This third-generation feminist (who is also in what is reported to be Clinton's strongest age-group of women supporters-- namely, over 60) voted for Obama because, among other reasons, it is more important to me that this country finally get beyond racial politics than it is to shatter the glass ceiling, which has been raised for each of the last three generations of women, and against which I have bumped my own head on more than one occasion.

[bioport]

sorry, i'm not a feminist, i cannot be a feminist because i am a man. hmm...
but as a human being used to using this "grey stuff between my ears", i totally subscribe to your posting.

[1dogs2]

To bioport: Who told you that a man cannot be a feminist? I'm happy to say all the men in my life are proud feminists.

[JAJ2007]

Thank you - you finally expressed most eloquently what a lot of us feminists have been trying to say...

[MH51]

My God thank you!
I wrote a piece on my blog on this very topic. I am tired of being told that because I am a feminist I must be voting for Clinton. My breasts do not make decisions for me. The thing between my ears does. I am well read and I have done my research. I have even taken the silly tests that come to me via email. It all points me to Mr. Obama. I am 52 yrs old and this is the 1st election where I have felt the passion. I have voted every time I could since the age of 18 but NO ONE has moved me more than Barack Obama.
Thank you Marianne for bringing this up.I am so tired of hearing from the media that I must be a Clinton supporter because I am a woman and a feminist. There are a lot of "us" out here that no one is paying attention to!

[davidwwalters]

Marianne.....i am in awe of your article
(i'm serious!)

"As a feminist, I believe nurturing and nourishing a world trying to be born is the most efficient way to counter the malevolent effects of a world that needs to pass away."

Are you serious! This is such an eloquent, powerful statement.

[energiaeinformazione]

Thank you for this post! I'm a feminist and Barack Obama is the first political candidate in my lifetime that I have found deeply inspiring and authentic. As so many people have been pointing out, the quality of Obama that no other candidate possesses is his ability to bring out the best in us--to inspire us to be the people we are capable of being. I get goosebumps when I hear crowds chant "Yes we can!" at Obama rallies. Today I had a mental picture of Barack Obama being inaugurated as president...can you see it?

[amberglow]

um...how can you build lasting relationships when many won't allow that people who aren't white rich Christian men have the same worth? How can you get together with those whose profits depend on refusing care and access? How can you improve American lives when 1/2 the government (more, actually--conservative Dems vote like Republicans) doesn't believe in the government as a force to improve average people's lives?

How are these "authentic relationships" supposed to be built when one party doesn't believe that a woman should have control over her own body? How, when they don't believe that all of us deserve equal rights and equal access and equal opportunity? When they fight tooth and nail against education and access to those things that improve lives?

[1dogs2]

To Amberglow: The same way MLK changed the political landscape in this country; the same way Ghandi shamed the British into independence; the same way that addressing divisive issues with moral courage and love and tenacity have always wrought change.

[OtayPanky]

What an antidote to the toxic "vagina politics" of Gloria Steinem, and the old school feministas.

Thank you.

[m4me08]

Amen. I have thought often after the misguided attempts by NOW to cripple Obama, that the difference between me and women who support HRC is that they are voting for the best woman in the race. I am voting for the best PERSON.

[unimpossible]

A-men!..to a WOMAN.

[MPeter]

Beautifully done, thanks MS Williamson. The old school feminists have tried to justify their own crooked ways by offering us a tortured explanation; offering a false choice between racism and sexism while condoning the snide and condescending manner in which the Clintons have treated Senator Obama--a brilliant, extremely capable, well-mannered and patriotic American as a nuisance. They feel entitled to the exalted position, not him.
Thank you for taking a stand. And just to echo what he said yesterday during his victory speech, the Movement needs MS Williamson. Together, we are the ones we have been waiting for. Welcome aboard.