In the wake of Hillary Clinton's victories in New Jersey and California, a young colleague -- and Bernie supporter -- asked why this nomination was such a big effing deal. "She's an old-school Democrat," she pointed out. "It's not like she'll disrupt the status quo."
But of course, she already has. As the first female presidential candidate, Hillary -- like that uppity negro, Barack Obama -- has upset one of the biggest apple carts in history.
I am both horrified that this nomination took 228 years and elated that I am here to see it. At 55, I'm old enough to have been openly underpaid and discriminated against. I remember when female Yale Club members weren't allowed to use the pool because the guys wanted to swim naked. I got fired from a waitressing job because a customer grabbed my breast and I hit him with a tray of beers -- he threatened to sue if they didn't let me go. My first boss in advertising slapped me on set and told me to "let the big boys do the thinking." (I had no recourse other than to quit, which I did.)
And here's the kicker: Every woman I know has a story like this. This shit has been Standard Operating Procedure forever, and just when you think it's gone, there's Trump emitting noxious gas about women or people openly describing Hillary as a man-eating bitch. If nothing else, recent events -- ranging from Trump's misogyny to the judge in the Stanford rape case to "Bernie Bros" calling a female reporter a cunt -- show me how desperately women need to have more representation, and power, in this country.
No one knows this better than Hillary Rodham Clinton. From the age of 13, when she famously wrote to NASA asking to become an astronaut and was told they didn't accept women, to not being allowed to use her maiden name as First Lady of Arkansas, to fielding literally thousands of misogynist slurs both during the 2008 campaign and over the past year, she has seen it all. And yes, she's got a "steely resolve," and no, she's not "warm and fuzzy." Most people fighting for their lives, and their rights, are not.
So yes, Virginia, this is a big effing deal. Hillary is here, she deserves to be here, and -- like Obama -- she had to be a million times better than the men she opposed to get here. And that's why #imwithher.
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
