I woke up this morning, turned on the computer, opened my web browser and this is the first headline that I saw: Protesters ask Clinton to Iron Shirts.

That’s how you know it’s going to be a good day.

Must. Breathe.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign stop was interrupted Monday when two men stood in the crowd and began screaming, “Iron my shirt!” during one of her final appearances before the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton, a former first lady running to become the nation’s first female president, laughed at the seemingly sexist protest that suggested a woman’s place is doing the laundry and not running the country.

“Ah, the remnants of sexism — alive and well,” Clinton said to applause in a school auditorium.

The two men were removed from the hall after raising a pair of signs that said, “Iron my shirt!” They also shouted the same slogan. [. . .]

“As I think has been abundantly demonstrated, I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling,” she said.

Clinton later joked about the incident as she invited questions.

“If there’s anyone left in the auditorium who wants to learn how to iron a shirt, I’ll talk about that,” she said with a smile.

Oh, really AP reporter Philip Elliot? The protest was seemingly sexist? Wow, I didn’t see that one coming. After all, these things can be so hard to tell.

I can’t yet decide if I’m impressed or annoyed by Clinton’s casual and affable response. I know; she didn’t have a choice. An angrier, more feminist reaction might have worked for New Hampshire audiences, but wouldn’t have gone over well on a national stage. And yesterday, the media had already gained enough sexist fodder to use against her. So. Impressed, I guess.

Now the biggest question: will any of the other candidates feel compelled to make a snarky remark about the incident?

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Comments

9 Comments so far

  1. BettyBoondoggle on January 8, 2008 12:35 pm

    The “best” part is at the end of the article where the protestors are quoted as saying that they don’t have anything against women, they just don’t think one should be president.

    So, you know, they don’t dislike women, they just dislike women, feel the need to attempt to humilate them in public with sexist gender roles. Clear as mud.

  2. Cara on January 8, 2008 12:54 pm

    I don’t actually see that in this article. Did you read it in a different one? Not that I doubt it; people say stupid shit like that all the time. Just curious.

  3. RachelPhilPa on January 8, 2008 1:44 pm

    “Iron my shirt!”

    How ’bout we iron your crotch, dude?

  4. Cara on January 8, 2008 1:53 pm

    hahahahaha. ahem.

  5. BettyBoondoggle on January 8, 2008 2:19 pm

    My bad. It wasn’t from the article. It’s from here:

    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/01/07/sexism-is-alive-and-well/

  6. Cara on January 8, 2008 2:30 pm

    Thanks. And UGH. Did you read those comments? Yeah, Hillary paid planted protesters to tell her to iron their shirts. WTF? I bet that she pays Rush Limbaugh, too. I’m so sick of the bullshit about how everything about Clinton is “calculated” — as if that’s different than any other presidential candidate (or hell, any federal politician) on either side.

  7. DaleP on January 8, 2008 3:12 pm

    The protesters work for a shock jock radio show in Boston. http://www.bobkrumm.com/blog/?p=1755

  8. BettyBoondoggle on January 8, 2008 3:29 pm

    Well, see, it’s OKAY if the MEN are underhanded, calculating, manipulative, etc. It’s not natural to them, it’s just the nature of the political beast. And being able to rise to the occasion is MANLY.

    Women, otoh, are naturally underhanded, calculating and manipulative. So, when they do it, it’s wrong.

    Or something. It’s hard to parse bigot “logic”.

  9. Cara on January 8, 2008 3:58 pm

    Wow Dale, thanks for directing me to yet more misogynist comments. I love how that blogger decides that being a shock jock radio show host somehow makes one not a misogynist protester, as if one can’t be both at the same time. I was pretty sure that it was quite the opposite. Someone needs to tell the morons that something being a “joke” doesn’t make it not bigoted. Though I’m not going to waste my time doing it. Next, I’ll start hearing that Rush Limbaugh isn’t singing “Obama, the Magic Negro” due to his racism, but to get ratings. Here’s a clue, folks: if you use racism/misogyny/homophobia/any other kind of bigotry to further your career, you are indeed a bigot.

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