If I Were A Woman, I Suspect This Is How I Would Feel... [View All]

And guess what? From the first moment he announced his candidacy, I have supported Barack Obama for President.

No, I don't think I'm a traitor. I don't think I've betrayed my sex. I'm not ignorant of history, or the struggles women have had to go through in this country to achieve what they've achieved. And you know what? I believe that women in this country struggled and fought for my right to vote so that I COULD VOTE FOR WHOMEVER I CHOOSE. For the best candidate. For the person that would be best for women, best for men, and best for the country that I love and that has given me every opportunity in the world.

And that candidate, for me, is Barack Obama.

See, I don't believe that feminism is about being better than men. I don't believe it's about exclusivity, or about helping only women to advance. I believe that feminism is about making sure that women have the same opportunities and doors open to them that men do. And I believe that Hillary has had, as the wife of a former president and an Ivy League grad, more doors open to her than most women OR men in this country ever will.

So please--quit trying to tell me that sexism is the reason that Hillary's campaign has derailed. Or that the many women supporting Obama hate other women, or don't understand feminism, or just don't care about helping other women. Don't tell me that Hillary's failure will be the failure of all women. Don't tell me there's a special place in hell for me because I've exercised the right to vote that women fought for, in order to vote for who I choose. Because if that right to vote only exists to make me forever beholden to the person who possesses the same reproductive organs that I do--then what is the point of that vote in the first place? What was the point of all that fighting, all that suffering, all that women went through for equality in the first place?