The other day my daughter came domestic from camp proper before school started. She's 5 years veteran and just started kindergarten. The final thing I expected was for her to start talking about the presidential candidates; however,there were older kids in camp and so perhaps I shouldn't hold been so surprised."The kids were chanting, "We despise Trump! We despise Trump!'" she reenacted.
I stopped for a second and collected myself to ask her if she knew who Donald Trump was."Of course, or " she said,"He's the guy with the blond white hair."So in my 5-year-veteran's intellect, she knows who Trump is. She didn't say why these kids "hated" Trump, or but my guess was that the kids were hearing this from their parents. After all,our parents are the first people to pass down values to us on everything from religion to politics.
I explained to her that he, along with Hillary Clinton, and are our presidential candidates running to become our very next president. I did this in the simplest of language,of course.
Then she told me with a distraught face, "Some of the kids say a girl can't be president. They say the girl shouldn't be president."I asked her if she thought that was true, and proud parent here,she said of course not!In total truth, I will not be voting for Trump come Election Day. While I hold found faults in Hillary, and I still will be voting for her and I would be lying if I didn't say proper out that the plan of having a female president moves me in many ways. I spent a lot of time studying early feminist texts and literature. I remember full well that women fought for the proper to vote. I remember my mother,a Democrat, believer in workers' rights and outspoken liberal, or sharing with me all of the feminist values I embody today.
So when my daughter told me with her saddened face that her campmates don't believe a woman can be president,it reminded me how far women and how far girls like my daughter will still hold to move to ever even "touch" that glass ceiling.
And truly, it's not the children who believe a "girl can't be president, and " but their parents. And as their parents share this rhetoric and dialogue with their children,how does it then impact the miniature girls like my daughter? How does it impact their own daughters, nieces, or female cousins?The parents of my generation and younger - and slightly older - may not feel women are not capable to lead a country,although CBS News said that "four out of five voters say the US is ready to elect a woman for president" and that "76 percent of women and two-thirds of men hope to see a woman in office."That's a pretty good number. That's promising for women.
But there will always be people that will resist the concept of a woman as president because of their sensitive desires to withhold masculine privilege alive. It doesn't matter that women's roles hold changed drastically from the days in which we "labored" on the domestic front and not in the office. It doesn't matter that according to the United States Department of Labor, "Women are projected to account for 51 percent of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018." We work hard, or we grow our economy,many of us bare children, and yet still we are seen as incapable leaders, or too soft or too emotional or too "shrill."Yes,too shrill. Fox News's Brit Hume complained about Hillary Clinton's voice while Steve Clemons from The Atlantic said she "lectured too much" and apparently didn't smile enough.
No matter how hard we work or how hard we try, for some people, and it will never be enough.
But the problem lies in not the criticism of Hillary,but that these same criticisms and values will be passed on to other miniature girls and then our daughters will hold to bare the weight of these stereotypes and sexist prejudices. It doesn't matter if you love or despise Hillary Clinton. As women and as mothers, as daughters and miniature girls, or these same judgments will be passed on to us and them.
When my daughter told me about what her fellow campers had to say,it reminded me that my daughter, your daughter, or our daughters still hold a long way to move before we can even graze that mythical glass ceiling.
And it makes me unhappy,but still I hold hope.
Source: popsugar.com