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Go Home Tina Does Hillary

THE PLANK MARCH 10, 2008

Tina Does Hillary

BY JASON ZENGERLE

Hillary gets the Tina Brown treatment in Newsweek. It's an entertaining read for several reasons--maybe none more so than Brown's horror at encountering, for the first time apparently, the sheer drudgery of reporting on a campaign; in Brown's words, "It's like being trapped in a moving bathysphere." (And how many writers has she sent to live in that bathysphere over the years?)

But the point of Brown's article, so far as I can tell, is to paint Hillary as the champion of the "Invisible Woman":

It's a revolt that has been overdue for a while and has now found its
focus in Clinton's candidacy. In 1952, Ralph Ellison's revelatory
novel, "Invisible Man," nailed the experience of being black in
America. In the relentless youth culture of the early 21st century, if
you are 50 and female, the novel that's being written on your forehead
every day is "Invisible Woman." All over the country there are
vigorous, independent, self-liberated boomer women—women who possess
all the management skills that come from raising families while holding
down demanding jobs, women who have experience, enterprise and, among
the empty nesters, a little financial independence, yet still find
themselves steadfastly dissed and ignored. Advertisers don't want them.
TV networks dump their older anchorwomen off the air. Hollywood studios
refuse to write parts for them. Employers make it clear they'd prefer a
"fresh (cheaper) face."

I'm not sure if the plight of the suburban empty-nester who can't find stylish clothes for herself at the mall is akin to the plight of a black man living under Jim Crow, but that's evidently Brown's thesis--and she's sticking to it:

It was hard not to be caught up in the euphoria at the Columbus
Athenaeum when her primary results started to come in. I found myself
jammed between two exultant Columbus ladies, a high-fiving yoga-studio
owner in her 50s and a human resources director of a software company
roughly the same age. They were raising the roof along with the band to
the old 1965 McCoys hit "Hang on Sloopy."

For all the
invisible women, it's the only anthem they've got. And for their sake
alone, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should not give up the fight.

And Hillary should stay in the race for Brown, too. After all, as her author's bio notes, Brown's currently working on a book about the Clintons. I don't think that book becomes a best seller if Hillary's the junior senator from New York when it comes out.

--Jason Zengerle 

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15 comments

Rather peculiar headline, that. Got blackton's interest, for sure, but perplexing nonetheless

- teplukhin2you

March 10, 2008 at 11:19am

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Ugh.  "Hang on Sloopy" is one of my favorite songs, and it contains the single best lyric in the history of rock and roll.  This makes me sad.

- boneill

March 10, 2008 at 11:21am

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This Tina Brown piece practically screams out for Wonkette to demolish it. IIRC Cox now writes for Newsweek's rival. Go get 'em, girl

- teplukhin2you

March 10, 2008 at 11:22am

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bone, which lyric is that?  (I am, for once, serious.)

And, by "shear drudgery," I assume that Tina has been covering the Clinton coiffure beat?

- drdannyu

March 10, 2008 at 11:40am

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There is absolutely no comparison (well, none worth making) between the black experience of Ellison's Invisible Man, and the "self-liberated boomer women" HRH sees (depends on?) today. To say that this, only confirms my opinion of Tatler Brown

- shislandguy

March 10, 2008 at 11:44am

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Hang on Sloopy is a song frequently played at Ohio State sporting events.  Probably has more to do with the fact that that song is ubiquitous in Ohio than the need for a theme song for female baby boomer politicians.

- jeidel1906

March 10, 2008 at 11:49am

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Hillary's story is the ultimate story of women's empowerment. Let's ignore the fact that she sacrificed her self-respect and legitimized humiliation of women in order to gain power.

Every night, before they go to bed, I want my daughters to know that the best way to acheive your dreams is to marry a powerful man and to wait for him to humiliate you so you can use the sympathy to catipult yourself to success. That's the american dream, in a nutshell.

- virginiacentrist

March 10, 2008 at 11:55am

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"Hang on Sloopy" < "Sloop John B"

But I actually give Hillary some credit for tapping into middle-class women's desire to be heard and to have a seat at the table. For nearly two generations, women have been taking the managerial lead in American life, continuing to run family households even while integrating (almost) fully into the workplace. On average, women are now better educated than men, too. But we still see the same tired old parade of (white) men vying for the top jobs in politics, big business, most of the professions, and even large swaths of academia.

I don't give the women who back Hillary for this reason much credit, however, since backing Hillary as the feminist we've-earned-it candidate makes about as much sense as backing Phyllis Schlafly. Hillary traded on her husband's fame and connections to step over three other women who had earned their way to the top of New York politics. In terms of the patriarchal and class power dynamics that exclude women from political leadership, Hillary Clinton is a "male" candidate. It's kind of sad to see people embracing the candidate of the entrenched, moneyed old-boy's club as the beacon of feminist achievement, especially since there are (finally!) an adequate number of women at the top of state and national politics to compete for the presidency. Why Hillary and not Sibelius or Napolitano or Murray or Cantwell?

- rhubarbs

March 10, 2008 at 12:04pm

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Bill Does Limbaugh.

Bill called in while in Texas, and you can hear it online (the easiest way is via Andrew Sullivan). He's sounding more like Haley Barbour every day.

In the early '60s someone wrote in "The Nation"  that the American Negro is now entering the "consciousness of the forum", thanks to the writings of Ellison, Baldwin, and Richard Wright.

Obama is not a fluke. He's the fruition of a tremendous amount of suffering, and growth.

Listening to Hillary in Mississippi with her latest weird frog-in-the-pot speech pattern, listening to Bill stir up those poor and poorly educated white voters in Ohio and Texas that Lee Atwater always counted on - beyond ugly.

- fougasseu

March 10, 2008 at 12:11pm

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Rhubarbs- SloopJohn B is a great, great song, but I do love "Hang on Sloopy."  To me it just smacks of this kind of unbridled freedom, of getting out of despair.

The lyric, drdan, is after the breakdown, where the singer crrons "Sloopy let your hair down girl, let it hang down on me."  The first part is the metaphorical "relax, baby- it is going to be all right.  We're here together, and it don't matter what your daddy do or where you are from or what anyone says- your worries are over, and it is just me and you."  And then the second part brings in the physical, with her long har draping onto her lover, whether they are actually making love or just holding on to each other.  It is that subtle shift from the metaphorical to the physical, with its simple yet evocative imagry, that blows my mind.  And then he sings it again, louder, and then the song really picks up, and it explodes.  I love it.

Yes- I've thought about "Hang on Sloopy" way too much.

- boneill

March 10, 2008 at 12:32pm

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Here's the reason for "Hang on Sloopy" in Ohio:

www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php

The resolution's something of a hoot.  Also, I must say wtf-ness at comparing the plight of the 50 year old boomer woman with a black man under Jim Crow.  That ranks right up there with Steinem's pre-NH Times Op-ed about how women got the vote 60 years after black people in sheer audacity.

- Crock1701

March 10, 2008 at 12:44pm

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What a surprise, that Tina Brown does a story on the election and finds out that the real, secret, underlying story is about... Tina Brown!  I am shocked. Shocked.

- jblumenfeld

March 10, 2008 at 12:55pm

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what jeidel said. Hang on Sloopy's the saddest pop song I know. Indelibly associated with every one of OSU's Rose Bowl-denying last-minute victories over Michigan.

- teplukhin2you

March 10, 2008 at 1:58pm

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"Steinem's pre-NH Times Op-ed about how women got the vote 60 years after black people in sheer audacity."

She wasn't the only one. A number of Clinton surrogates were making that spurious argument. Oh, those poor rich white women whose grandmothers couldn't vote when black people could -- well, could in theory -- well, were being lynched for not toeing the line, but what the hell. Disgusting.

- CharlesFosterKane

March 10, 2008 at 2:30pm

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I don't like Hillary for very much.  But, putting the press in a mens room right up against the urinals!  Well, I've got to at least consider voting for her on that score.

- ChanRobt

March 11, 2008 at 2:16pm

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