Monday, October 26, 2015
Stop Accusing Powerful Women of Shouting
“I’m not shouting. It’s just
when women talk, some people think we’re shouting.” –Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton spoke
some serious truth to power this past week at the Women’s Leadership Forum
in Washington D.C. After enduring a
grueling, hostile, 11-hour hearing on the Benghazi terror attack, Clinton took
to the stage and proved to the American public that she will not be
silenced. With respect to the issue of
gun control, an issue Clinton has pledged
to address as President of the United States with or without Congressional
approval, the former Secretary of State came out swinging and pledged to remain
vocal about the issue despite others criticizing her for “shouting.”
This quote perfectly encapsulates
the struggle many women face in American politics today. When women care deeply about issues and
demonstrate a clear passion and commitment to resolve them, their efforts are
frequently invalidated and belittled.
Say what you will about Hillary Clinton and her politics, but attacking
her for bringing gun control to the forefront of the American political
discourse is petty and childish. Rather
than condescending women for caring about issues that affect them, it would be
far more productive for others to engage with them over those issues in order
to create a substantive, nuanced dialogue the American public deserves during
any given election cycle.
In her
speech at the Women’s Leadership Forum, Clinton said, “But as I said from
the start, I wanted to rise above partisanship and reach for statesmanship, and
that’s what I’ve tried to do.” In moving
forward, let us all take that quote to heart and work together in rising above
the trivial and digging into the issues that affect us as Americans.
--Talia Lepson, MWPC Intern
