Warning: pedantry ahead. Let's distinguish between misogyny, misandry, and sexism. Misogyny is hatred and disdain for women in general. Misandry, hatred and disdain for men in general, is probably the most underused word in political debate. Although a lifelong feminist, I have always loathed  knee-jerk male-bashing and defended men against stereotyping all my life. Wikipedia has a decent definition of sexism: "Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination and/or hatred of people based on their sex rather than their individual merits."

I struggle greatly with my own misogyny. I was much more comfortable being the only girl in my political science classes at Fordham than attending an all girls Catholic College in my freshman year. I credit my 5 younger brothers and 5 young uncles. My four daughters might have contributed to the misogyny too:) Working in the women-dominated fields of librarianship and social work has been a terribly bad fit for me with dire economic consequences.

I am far more confident that men will like me than women will like me. I don't do tact. If I see a group of 5 men at a party, I know they need me:) All my shrinks have been men. I have done my best therapy  work with male clients. One client told me I must have been a gay male in a previous lifetime since I understood him so well:) The real explanation was that manic depressive closets resemble gay closets.

The lying, undemocratic bastards that stole the Democratic nomination must be punished. We can't let them get away with this. The only way to teach them a lesson is to use our vote. I'm sick and tired of people complaining that those of us that say this are being irrational, so I've detailed below the reasoning behind my decision.

There was rampant misogyny on display throughout the primary campaign. There were hateful things said by talking heads on cable news shows, anonymous posters on the Internet, and some supporters of Obama. Many of these comments were beyond the pale. I am going to punish those people by voting for the candidate of the party that misled us to war under false premises. This war has resulted in more than 4,000 deaths of young Americans and an uncounted number of deaths of Iraqi women and children, but I don't care. The misogynistic comments were far more harmful than the lies that led us to war. How can you possibly ignore some bruised feelings just because some people have died due to GOP lies?

NOW is providing us the opportunity to check out the most outrageous moments of sexism from mainstream media's coverage of the 2008 elections, and rate them yourself on NOW's Misogyny Meter. You can also nominate these geniuses for NOW's Media Hall of Shame "2008 Election Edition".

During the 2008 presidential primaries, media misogyny reached an all-time high. Sen. Hillary Clinton -- who broke new ground for women with her inspiring campaign and came close to winning the Democratic nomination -- was the target of the most extraordinarily sexist attacks we've witnessed in a long time. NOW warned that Michelle Obama would be their next target, and we were right. The media seem intent on outdoing themselves by combining sexist and racist slurs against the potential first lady. From the national to the local level, any woman who serves or runs for political office (or is the spouse of someone who does) is subject to gender-based double standards and sexist attacks. These insults serve to demean and stereotype ALL women. Any question of whether we still need a feminist movement is being answered every day in the media, and the answer is a resounding Yes.

http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall_of_shame/about.html

Please check out each one of giants of mainstream media caught in action in video. The illustrious bunch for the Media Hall of Shame includes likes of:

1. Keith Olbermann insinuates violence against Clinton.
   
2. Glenn Beck complains Clinton sounds like his wife.
   
3. Ken Rudin says Clinton is Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction.    
   
4. Marc Rudov says Hillary acts like a "B-word."
   
5. Maureen Dowd is a chronic offender who relies on gender stereotypes.    
   
6. Charlotte Allen claims Clinton and all women are stupid.
   
7. Robin Givhan brings attention to Hillary's cleavage.    
   
8. Mike Barnicle sees Hillary as the first wife outside court.
   
9. Tucker Carlson is scared of being castrated by Hillary?    
   
10. Bill Kristol thinks white women are the problem.
    
11. Andrew Sullivan tries to turn feminist voters away from Hillary.    
    
12. Chris Matthews attributes Hillary's success to Bill messing around.
    
14. David Shuster sees Chelsea as being pimped out.    
    
15. Cameron Cardow thinks its noteworthy that Clinton wears pantsuits.
    
16. Cameron Cardow fits three insults into one cartoon.    
    
17. Daryl Cagle draws violent imagery of Hillary Clinton as the slain beast.
    
18. Sandy Huffaker draws Hillary as a sleazeball slugger.    
    
19. Michael Ramirez draws Clinton as the Wicked Witch.
    
20. Jack Cafferty imagines Obama wanting to run over Clinton with a truck.    
    
21. Peggy Noonan says Hillary "needs space because she's a woman."
    
22. Rush Limbaugh doesn't want to see a woman age in the White House.    
    
23. Randi Rhodes slurs Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro.
    
24. Glenn Beck calls Clinton a "stereotypical bitch."    
    
25. Chief offenders: NBC and MSNBC
    
26. Fox News labels Michelle "Obama's baby mama."    
    
27. Lars Larson thinks Michelle Obama got a free ride.
    
28. Gary Langer pits wife versus wife.    
    
29. Cal Thomas declares all black women are angry.

http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall_of_ shame/index.html?open=1&page=1

Surely these media giants make us feel proud of them, don't they?
If somehow you don't approve of the actions of these great geniuses, please ACT. Act NOW!!

http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall_of_ shame/sample_letter.html

American Heritage defines sexism two ways:

1)    Discrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women.

2)    Attitudes, conditions, or behaviors that promote stereotyping of social roles based on gender.

Those who engage in the first form of sexism against women are probably accurately labeled as misogynists. But the second form of sexism is not so cut and dried.

I'd like to see a conversation that's not directly about Hillary -- although her experiences certainly help us put tangible examples on the examination table. This election season brought a host of simmering cultural challenges to a head -- partly because of the candidates' distinct identities, and partly because of their differing perspectives on big-picture cultural issues. Barack symbolizes, in effect, the turning of the page on the culture wars of the past few decades, which makes sense to the majority of young voters, but it feels like a backward move to many older warriors (particularly feminists, in light of what happened to Hillary).

Funny I can't help but think of how shocked we dems were when Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but lost the election due to delegate allotment.  These things happen every once in a while and demonstrate the utter sham of representative democracies.  These elaborate facades filled with the superrich and  designed to control the will of the people or direct democracies.

Now it's 2008. Once again a slight majority of the people supported one candidate, but the system so designed to recode the errors, changed the results.

Does the end (disenfranchisement  of voters in two states,character assassinations, misogyny, ignoring popular vote) justify the means?

I'm going to do it anyway. I sent this to my candidate today:

Dear Senator Clinton,

I have been reading today that you will hold a rally in NY tomorrow night that will be a pivotal moment in your campaign. There are many rumors circulating and much speculation about what will occur. I understand if you are going to suspend your campaign. I will be elated if you continue your campaign. I would like to ask you to consider the following, however. As a feminist and a woman with two daughters I would ask you not to endorse Senator Obama.

I realize that as a Democrat the conventional wisdom is that you must endorse him to be seen as a team player. The fact is that your team has benched you. Your supporters see this and we are appalled. We have watched as the media and the pundits and your own opponent, a fellow Democrat for crying out loud, have insulted and belittled you time and again. We have watched as the leaders of your party remained silent in the face of the most egregious misogyny. The excuse given when cries of sexism erupted was always "it's not about women, it's about her," as if that made it ok.

The fact is that when Senator Obama dismissed a female reporter with his "sweetie" comment and the boyz with him snickered he showed his true colors, and demonstrated once and for all that the "it's just Hillary" argument is false. I am extremely worried about the fall out of this campaign in terms of what will now be acceptable behavior toward women who compete in traditionally male arenas.

My daughter, as the only natural born citizen in our Canadian immigrant family always used to say "I'm the only one in the family who can be President. I guess I'll have to do it." It was adorable to hear her say that when she was four and five years old and I never doubted that if that was what she wanted, that was what she could do. I doubt it now.

If you choose to fight this all the way, I am behind you. I will be happy to spend the summer fighting the good fight here in Washington state or wherever I would be effective. What I will not do is cast a vote for Senator Obama, period. I will also not cast a vote for anyone who has endorsed him. I will happily go to the polls and vote for any downballot Democrat who has endorsed you. I will write in your name on my ballot if that is allowed in my state, but I will never tick the box next to the name of a man who has condoned and benefitted from the demeaning and subdugation of American women.

Sincerely,

(me)

Update: I received an email from someone claiming to be Michael Wolff pointing out that I use 'Richard' several times in this essay. Ooops! He got me! Chalk it up to a bad pain day. Most of you know I'm usually vigilant when it comes to details like this - but sometimes, when the pain gets really bad, the back of my brain takes over. I was thinking about the TV pundit Richard Wolff (the Wolff I know best). It just came out - and for that I am sorry. If I'm eviscerating the man - I should at the very least get his name right! So thank you MICHAEL Wolff for the correction. That took courage.

A few weeks ago I read an article in Vanity Fair that really scorched my shorts.  I was so pissed off, I had to think about it a while - let it simmer, so to speak - see if the pot came to full boil.  Well it did.  I'd say I'm well and truly `boiled' now.  In fact - the more I think about it the `prime-ier' I get.  Why this particular diatribe?  Out of the encyclopedia of `I Hate Hillary's' littered like smashed walnuts on the side of the road - why did this pop my kettle?  The complete and utter denigration and dismissal of women in general.  Call it the final straw - the last nail in the coffin - one insult too far.  You see - Michael Wolff has declared us over 50 types unfuckable - and you know what that means: invisibility to the point of shunning (he even uses that word!).  Guess we can all go home now girls - at least those of us in what the opposite gender sees as peri-(pathetic) menopause.  We are now officially invisible - except for Hillary, of course.  She's still out there - plugging away - but it's only a matter of time.  She's fading - shrinking towards germ status (with any male handy the prescribed antibiotic).  The estimable and oh so quip worthy Mr. Wolff has pronounced her persona non grata, so - behold the unfuckable woman!

I have a genuine question related to the rationale behind some claims often made on this site.

If Hillary Clinton is losing to a no-good lame much inferior lightweight candidate now because of the relentless media bias against her and the misogyny of the elites and part of the voters, what exactly would change between now and November that would make her more electable against another much inferior male candidate who is also a media darling ?

No snark. No insults to each other.
Floor is yours.