Women and Politics

People were moving, the crowds were bustling. You couldn’t help but hear the sounds and buzz of all the people walking through Denver. You either moved with the crowds or got out of the way. Christine is not alone but she isn’t moving. I am watching her from across the street and she notices that I am walking directly towards her. She smiles but the smile is out of hospitality. She is unsure why I am approaching.

I ask her if she was able to hear the speech. Christine has a reserved tone and soft voice. The man with her, I realize now that I didn’t ask his name, says they could have gotten in if they had tried hard enough; however, they watched Obama from the outside of the field on the monitors.

Christine is a writer, a native of Denver and identified herself as a chicana. She is carrying a novel in her bag. She is surprised, as I describe wanting to do a podcast for a blog. She writes quietly in her space and doesn’t really share her work with the world. She is a literature major and doesn’t need to prove that she has something to offer. After some time, I convinced Christine to share herself and her opinion about Obama. Here is what she had to say:

I have reached Larimer Street and it is still buzzing with the excitement of the night. People are stopping traffic as crowds move through the streets. Many are on their way to restaurants to get something to eat and some are going to celebrate. The streets and the sidewalks are overcrowded. Dacia agrees to talk to me, sharing her perspective, another “Woman on the Street”:

Walking from Invesco Field, I see Tony waiting among her friends to be picked up to return to her hotel. She was still carrying the signs and that special ticket draped around her neck. She was still excited about the night. Here is what Tony had to say:

[The content below is a paraphrased summary of the Clinton speech made at the DNC this week. It in no way is meant to express the political inclinations of the author or the WCFF.] [update: Video included]

After a video display of Hillary Clinton and her family. Hillary is introduced with excitement and grace by her daughter calling her mom her “hero.” After waiting for the cheers and standing ovation to stop, she reminds America that she is a proud democrat, a proud mother, a proud senator, and a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

“No matter who you voted for in the primaries, we have to vote as a united party.”

She talks about her 30 years in the trenches helping families balance workand family and fighting for women’s rights around the globe. Telling the crowd, We should not have to suffer through failed leadership.

“No Way, No how and No McCain.”

On the campaign trail she remembers important stories that made it possible for her to continue to campaign and fight to be President.

“You allowed me to become part of your lives and you became a part of mine.”

She remember the single mom that adopted two kids with Autism but had cancer. She walked up to Clinton with her name written her bald head asking Hillary to fight for healthcare.

Clinton shows respect for democrats that we have lost. Champions like Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Stating that Tubbs-Jones wanted a fairer, smarter, stronger and better America. Merv, Tubbs-Jones son, stood up.

Clinton talks about the “invisible” [Americans], that have gone unnoticed by the government for eight years. This is why she ran and now supports Barack Obama for President. We need leaders who can help us and show us that there are no limits to what is possible in America. However, getting to see this America won’t be easy but it will be “impossible” if we don’t have a President that is a Democrat in office.

“If we do our part we will do it again with Obama as President”

She goes on to talk about the great team of Obama/Biden ticket but also the strong women they have for partners.

She talks about the economic stagnation and lack of alternatives for energy. The audience chimes no, saying no more to what has been plaguing American life. She talks about McCain’s economic policy and compares it to the Bush Administration.

“Ironic that they McCain and Bush will be together in the Twin Cities because they are awful hard to tell apart. “

She leaves the stage after evoking Harriet Tubman’s path to freedom.

“If you hear the dogs barking, keep going. If you hear them yelling after you, keep going. If you see the lights behind you, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”

(Please welcome our friend PunditMom to the WCFF blog! She will be cross-posting from her blog during the conventions and we are so happy to have her. Look forward to more of her posts!)

While there are no statistics to prove this, it feels like there are a record number of events for political women at the Democratic National Convention. That’s a really exciting thing in terms of where political women go from here when the 2008 election is done in November.

NOW’s EqualiTEA, the Unconventional Women forum being put on by a variety of organizations, including The White House Project and the Women’s Campaign Forum, and the EMILY’s List reception, just to name a few, are places for progressive, activist women to gather and start planning the next phase of their political lives and agendas.

The Women’s Media Center is also presenting their report called, “From Soundbites to Solutions: Bias, Punditry and the Press in the 2008 Election,” and apparently we need it, and not just for the guys who insisted on giving Hillary Clinton short shrift during the presidential campaign.

In an article called Hillary Clinton Fans Tough to Woo, Christy Hoppe of the Dallas-Morning News wrote about the increased number of women’s gatherings in Denver, referring to them as an “estrogen-fest.”

An estrogen-fest.

Is that supposed to make us think about hundreds of hormonal women creating a ruckus like a bunch of sorority girls? Because I hardly think it’s the right turn of a phrase to describe gatherings with the likes of Senator Hillary Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the scores of other high-profile Democratic women, especially when one Clinton almost became the party’s presidential nominee.

Just out of curiosity, when was the last time you read anything written about a political event populated by men called a “testosterone-fest?”

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

The fact that the media, women members included, continue to write about gatherings presented and attended by women — especially political women — in derogatory and dismissive terms like this one never ceases to amaze me. I guess that’s my problem. I should be used to it by now.

But if we can’t even get other women to stop describing serious women and serious events with a vocabulary that can only diminish and mock us, how will we ever get the likes of Chris Matthews, Tucker Carlson, or the whole team at Fox News to stop referring to us as “bitchy” and “castrating?”

If any of you run into Christy Hoppe at the DNC, let her know I’d like to have a word with her. I just hope that she doesn’t run into Gloria Steinem or Nancy Pelosi first. That just won’t be pretty.

(Cross-posted from PunditMom.)