Discussion for article #245963
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Memo to all Republicans everywhere forever:
This is how you apologize. Next?
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“I have spent much of my career as a diplomat. It is an occupation in which words and context matter a great deal. So one might assume I know better than to tell a large number of women to go to hell,”
As mea culpas go, this is one of the better ones I’ve heard in a while. She begins by acknowledging the worst possible spin that could be put on her remarks (“telling women to’go to hell”), but then rather than making excuses or arguing about why that spin isn’t fair, she just plain apologizes. That was a classy move.
I am not a big fan of Allbright, but as I’ve noted on other threads, I did not personally find that remark particularly offensive – to me it came off as a (somewhat clumsy) appeal to solidarity. But it was received in the context of Gloria Steinem’s much more offensive, dismissive, and condescending remark about young women supposedly flocking to the Sanders campaign because “that’s where the boys are.” In fact I suspect if it had not been for the fact that Allbright’s remarks came soon after Steinem’s, Allbright’s comment might not have received much press attention at all (if any),
But in talking to some female friends about both these women’s remarks, it quickly became clear that, fair or unfair, Allbright’s remarks were taken as deeply offensive by some young women (and at least one older woman I talked to about it). The level of offense ranged from mild annoyance to true outrage. Totally unscientific, totally anecdotal, but convinced me that at least some women were judging Allbright’s comments a lot more harshly than I was.
Damage control is never fun, especially if you’re the one who has to throw yourself on your sword to take some heat off your candidate. In this respect, Allbright took her medicine like an adult.
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Yep, no “I am sorry if people misunderstood me and took offense.”
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I agree. It was terrible the way it came out, but struck me as just spur of the moment unfortunate word choice under the hot lights while trying to make the somewhat less terrible, but still annoying, “vote for me because of our gender” plea. Nobody would deny that there’s a certain element of that happening or that it influences if not controls some peoples’ decisions, but HRC would be far FAR better off telling people “You know, just like I don’t want people not to vote for me because I’m a woman, I also don’t want people to vote for me just because I’m a woman. I want people to vote for me because they’ve listened to me, heard my ideas and positions and policies, recognize that they’re good ideas, positions aligned with their interests and policies that will help them, and that I’m the best qualified person to fight this fight for them.” Stick solely to the merits.
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It’s true that some women were judging her remarks more harshly, but I’m guessing that’s mostly because they didn’t know what she actually said. The media ran this up and down the field pretending she was telling Sanders’ female voters they were going to hell like she’s some kind of feminist televangelist. But what she actually said is that women should vote for whomever we choose, and her “special place in hell” remark was about women looking out for each other in general. I tend to greatly agree, and I admit that the comment was clumsy as hell. I just hate that so many people were lied to by the media.
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Both offensive comments made by Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem came at exactly the wrong time for Hillary. By attempting to woo voters to her side, both Albright and Steinem demonstrated nothing but outright disdain for young people. And young people answered: by voting for Bernie.
The fact is that you cannot win voters to your side by insulting them. Nobody likes to be insulting. And unfortunately, Hillary is relying on her old tactics of insulting anyone who doesn’t support her. For someone who is trying to shake off the perception of being dishonest, this is a dangerous game to play. And it leaves voters thinking that going nasty is the only tool Hillary has in her toolbox.
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Maybe that was the intent, and certainly her full remarks lend credence to that. But since the “special place in hell” remark was the last thing she said before handing the microphone over to Hillary, I don’t think it was only media spin and out-of-contextness that led some folks to take offense.
By the way, having now read her full opinion piece, I would just add that it was quite eloquent, and did a very good job of clarifying/reinforcing what she was trying to get at in her original remarks.
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while young women may not want to hear anything more from this aging feminist
Tough for poor Maddie’s niggling torturers to claim a meritorious fight after this show trial. Equally tough to hang an OpEd from one’s scalp belt…
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Good for her! Can we move on to the next distracting outrage?
PS: I’d like to encourage others here to take a look at the Favreau piece discussion I started on The Hive today. I hope we can establish a safe place to be really honest with ourselves and each other about the pros and cons of both Hillary and Bernie. Thanks!
EDIT: Notice not everyone who regularly comments is a Prime member – if you are interested, the Favreau piece was on The Daily Beast today under Columnists titled “Obama’s writer pens Trump victory speech.”
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In my 2016 mind, I cringed when I heard her line.
In my 1970s mind, I remember when I had to choose a vocation in my sophmore year of hgh school … the choice for us girls were limited to commercial (typing and shorthand), beauty culture, home ec (sewing and cooking), and drafting. At that time, not all that long ago, it was critical for successful women to reach back and bring along those coming up behind them. This was the filter through I heard the message behind her inarticulate words.
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Reading the commenters reactions have been interesting (I have a NYT subscription). Many are responding to the mea culpa positively, and sharing their experiences (including some men). Sander’s supporters seem…unforgiving.
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“Falling on one’s sword” generally means (back in the day) taking the blame for someone else. Here, Allbright is properly taking the blame for words that fell out of her own mouth…not Hillary’s mouth. Don’t blame anyone for getting ticked off about those words at all. But Hillary certainly didn’t put them in Allbright’s mouth.
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Much ado about nothing, it’s a well known quote, obviously she wasn’t saying that anybody was going to hell.
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Do not go gently into the limelight…
To be fair, I don’t think Albright or Hillary gets up in the morning and intends to insult voters. In the case of Albright, she really thinks this way because of her lived experience. Its a window into what older women went through and her statement reveals the battle scars. More often than not the outrage is ginned up by people for their own hyper-partisan reasons – deliberately misinterpreting something for political gain. We see the GOP do it all the time – but we do not recognize it when it comes to us from our own. Its really all noise.
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I felt the same way. She did the right thing in her apology.
Those of us who are older used that phrase to distinguish women-who-help-women from women-who-try-to-undercut-other-women. There are some issues here that are important ones for feminists to talk about. But not in this context.
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As long as it’s good with my 21-year old daughter- which it is- it’s fine with me.
Let’s move on.
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They are a disgusting bunch aren’t they? I get more disgusted every day watching them take a molehill and make it into a mountain
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