Regardless of where you stand in relation to Hillary’s policies, it takes willful ignorance to deny both the blatant and subliminal sexism pervasive in many of the smear campaigns against her. Whether it’s calling her Shrillary, the mostly harmless but largely tired Bernie vs. Hillary memes, or the straight up name calling from both GOP voters and Bernie supporters alike, the ways in which political hatred for Hillary play out often seamlessly fuse the run-of-the-mill dirty politics with a heaping dose of sexism, so it’s no surprise that a recent joke on her campaign trail spurred a brand new slew of low blows.
Hillary was at a campaign rally in Nevada talking about Wall Street and her disenchantment with the Republican motions to repeal the Dodd-Frank law considering the economic landslide that has followed unregulated trading and greatly played into our current recession, when she recalled one of her favorite old political ads, which featured a dog barking whenever a politician lied.
Source: bustle.com
“I’m trying to figure out how we can do that with Republicans.” Clinton joked, “You know. We need to get that dog and follow them around and every time they say these things, like, ‘Oh, the great recession was caused by too much regulation’ — arf, arf, arf, arf!”
Clinton’s actual barking at the end of the joke was somewhat impressive in it’s accuracy, and unfortunately that lent itself to further memification which quickly found it’s way out of the political and humorous, and into the old sexist tropes comparing Hillary to a “dog” and a “bitch.”
The Independent Review made an obvious stoke of the troll fire when they posted this Vine as a “call to arms” for people to remix Hillary’s bark, including promises to revine any good remixes.
Without cease, the remixes rolled in.
Given the fact that people were already calling Hillary a bitch and comparing her to a dog — most publicly Trump in a recent rally. It’s of little surprise that people took this as a final permission to unleash their views of her inferiority to the men in her life, whether it be her husband or her presidential opponents.
Bill and Hillary. pic.twitter.com/YodsbBAbLF
— ¡El Sooopèrr! ن c137 (@SooperMexican) February 16, 2016
Trump and Hillary ??? pic.twitter.com/AFzITeSqC1
— ¡El Sooopèrr! ن c137 (@SooperMexican) February 16, 2016
Mitt wants to know #hillarybarks @INJO https://t.co/MQJj6Uu2dw
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) February 16, 2016
This is the nature of politics. No one running for president is innocent or victimized. The smearing and the memes will happen across the board regardless of demographic. But honestly, seeing people so excited to grab at the opportunity to compare Hillary to a dog –or more aptly a bitch — speaks volumes about our political climate.
(Bustle)
Original by: Bronwyn Isaac
