Clinton: The Woman vs The Person and Feminism vs Humanism

Whew ... the title alone might be enough to either draw you in, or turn you away completely, depending on your perspective. I love Melissa McEwan's writing, and the title of this post combines two of her recent entries at Shakesville that I think are must read posts:

Clinton the Woman vs. Clinton the Person
posted by Melissa McEwan at Shakesville

"... a commenter said (with regard to the "when he hears the senator's voice, he's overcome by an urge to punch her in the face" quote highlighted in my Feminism and Humanism piece): "I want to punch Clinton the person, not Clinton the woman."

"These are not separable identities. [...]

"I see this notion everywhere—that some violent urge toward Hillary Clinton isn't aimed at "Clinton the woman," but at some other magical version of her where her sex and gender have been erased, presumably along with the entire cultural context of womanhood. The semantic contortions invoked to extricate "Hillary Clinton the person" from "Hillary Clinton the woman" are an attempt to do an end-run around that context, to create a space outside of reality, where Hillary Clinton exists in some sexless, genderless limbo and people can talk about wanting to injure that non-woman without all the icky negative images injuring actual women conjures for most decent people. [...]

"Here's the thing: Hillary Clinton can't escape the context of womanhood by wishing it away, and you can't wish it away, either. She can't wave a magic wand and erase it to her benefit, and you can't declare it irrelevant while discussing how you want to pummel her. She doesn't get to say, "I'm not running for president as a woman; I'm running for president as a person," because being a woman still matters in this culture; womanhood still precludes full personhood. You don't get to pretend that's not the reality in which we live to declare you're punching "Hillary Clinton the person," not "Hillary Clinton the woman."

This provides additional context for the previous comments.

Feminism 101: Feminism and Humanism
posted by Melissa McEwan at Shakesville

Why feminism (where "feminism" means sex equality) cannot be subsumed by humanism (where "humanism" means equality for all humans): Because the majority of humans still don't understand why calling Hillary Clinton a cunt and a whore is sexist.

That's the short version. But since I am never succinct when verbosity will do...

From Rebecca Traister's Hey, Obama boys: Back off already! (emphasis and bracketed edit mine):

One of my closest girlfriends, an Obama voter, told me of a drink she'd had with a politically [faux]gressive man who made a series of legitimate complaints about Clinton's policies before adding that when he hears the senator's voice, he's overcome by an urge to punch her in the face.

That's a visceral and violent reaction to something that is specifically feminine.* And as long as there are men, who would ostensibly be part of the "humanist" movement, yet retain a visceral and violent reaction to the feminine, there is no foundation for a sexless, "humanist" movement.