Watching Hillary Helped Me Understand America

Part 3: Lessons from Hillary Part 1: From Bad Ass to Punching Bag Part 2: Candidate Hillary The immediate aftermath of the 2016 election almost broke me. I was a mess watching Hillary’s concession speech. Not only was I upset over the outcome of the election but I was extremely distressed for her. How can she be so strong, I wondered (not for the first time). It seemed so unfair she had to console everyone else when she had to be dying inside. Watching it the second time via the docuseries wasn’t much better. Even though I now know what happened, …

Watching Hillary Helped Me Understand America

Part 2: Candidate Hillary Part 1: From Bad Ass to Punching Bag While I’d been around for the Clinton presidency, I wasn’t as familiar with Hillary’s history prior to that. There were many things I didn’t know. For one thing, prior to Hillary’s candidacy, she’d been perceived as a radical liberal. She’d fought hard against this label as people tend to be suspicious of those of us who want to transform the system (yes, I’m being sarcastic; why do you ask?). That’s why it was ironic when the media painted her as a centrist, establishment candidate.  In other words, every …

Watching Hillary Helped Me Understand America

Part 1: From Bad Ass to Punching Bag My preparations to watch the Hulu docuseries Hillary? A box of tissues. Others might’ve brought popcorn but I knew I’d need a different kind of comfort. Although it’s been close to four years since I embarrassingly burst into tears on an airplane as I started to read her book, What Happened, I haven’t picked it up since. It’s still too raw. Sure enough, two minutes into the first episode and I was already in tears. In the docuseries, Hillary was laughing about how she didn’t understand why people felt so negatively about …

The Sucker Punch of How I Met Your Mother Finale

The How I Met Your Mother finale was a sucker punch for many fans. Although some are upset about the poor writing, it was the sad ending for all of the female characters that was truly painful.

The Mother of All Journeys: Becoming a Mothering Activist

As a third generation ardent feminist, women’s issues have always been of the greatest importance to me. Even while attending high school in southern Missouri (not the most welcome environment for a feminist), I was very aware of issues like unequal pay, sexual harassment, dearth of female leaders, and the silencing of girls in the academic environment. No one talked about mothering as a woman’s issue. When I went to college, my education in feminism continued and I added the issues of reproductive rights, violence against women, body image, sexual orientation, occupational segregation of women, inequity in religion, and legal …