Me, I’m voting for Hillary not because she’s a woman—but because I am.

Billionaires for Bush or Gore? What about Radical Feminists for Hillary Clinton? I’ve ignored the race for US President because it’s boring. But the Women’s Media Centre has published an essay by the radical feminist writer Robin Morgan titled ‘Goodbye to All That (#2)’, a sequel to an essay originally published in 1970 and dedicated to debunking the myths of the male (dominated) left: “Goodbye, goodbye forever, counterfeit Left, counterleft, male-dominated cracked-glass mirror reflection of the Amerikan Nightmare. Women are the real Left” et cetera. (Radgeek has placed it online here.) This year’s version is written in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for Presidential candidate, and her desire to become the United States’ first female President. And in the end, what it boils down to is Morgan appealing for other women to vote for Clinton.

Oh well.

Then again, I thought Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism was kinda odd too.

See also : Sisterhood is powerful, but only up to a point, Meghan Daum, Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2008

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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6 Responses to Me, I’m voting for Hillary not because she’s a woman—but because I am.

  1. Darrin Hodges says:

    “I thought Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism was kinda odd too.”

    Odd? It was bizarre.

  2. Dr. Cam says:

    I thought it was awesome.

  3. Liam says:

    I thought it was fucking boring. Though i did read it on a plane…

  4. @ndy says:

    I read the first edition (1989). The second edition was published in the wake — literally a few months — of 9:11, only with a new chapter tacked on the end about that event. From what I can recall, the basic thesis was that modern, patriarchal masculinity is intrinsically violent, and ‘terrorism’ its ideal expression. The most critical review I can find online is by Ann Murphy, Patriarchy Breeds Terrorism, Peacework, March 2005.

    I enjoyed reading Demon Lover — well, parts of it anyway — even if I thought it rather ‘odd’, or infuriating — by which I mean overly-didactic — and in reference to anarchist terrorism of the late nineteenth century, deeply flawed in terms of its understanding of the political and social context within which such acts took place. On the whole, the emphases of the text flow from the author’s basic political commitments and conceptual framework (men vs. women), which I don’t accept; nevertheless, I think Morgan makes an interesting case. And in a sense, I think some of the flaws in her arguments are revealed in her barracking for Hillary.

  5. Rad Geek says:

    The original “Goodbye to All That” is one of my favorite short essays in the world. So it’s a bit disappointing to see someone who once wrote this:

    Goodbye to those simple-minded optimistic dreams of socialist equality all our good socialist brothers want us to believe. How merely liberal a politics that is! How much further we will have to go to create those profound changes that would give birth to a genderless society. Profound, Sister. Beyond what is male or female. Beyond standards we all adhere to now without daring to examine them as male-created, male-dominated, male-fucked-up, and in male self-interest. Beyond all known standards, especially those easily articulated revolutionary ones we all rhetorically invoke. Beyond—to a species with a new name, that would not dare define itself as Man.

    … We are rising, powerful in our unclean bodies; bright glowing mad in our inferior brains; wild hair flying, wild eyes staring, wild voices keening; undaunted by blood we who hemorrhage every twenty-eight days; laughing at our own beauty we who have lost our sense of humor; mourning for all each precious one of us might have been in this one living time-place had she not been born a woman; stuffing fingers into our mouths to stop the screams of fear and hate and pity for men we have loved and love still; tears in our eyes and bitterness in our mouths for children we couldn’t have, or couldn’t not have, or didn’t want, or didn’t want yet, or wanted and had in this place and this time of horror. We are rising with a fury older and potentially greater than any force in history, and this time we will be free or no one will survive. Power to all the people or to none. All the way down, this time.

    … is now drawing on her legacy and turning her talents to churn out endorsements for a triangulating pro-war corporate liberal candidate for President of the United States. I fear that the bottom of “all the way down” has become rather more shallow than it once was.

  6. @ndy says:

    So radgeek, what’s going on? Is this a major deviation on Morgan’s part, or the logical culmination of an earlier political trajectory? Does such support mean the abandonment of any claims to radicality on her part, or is it the sensible course to take when confronted by the admittedly meagre choices on offer, one which, if successful, will actually tend to benefit women on the whole in a way in which the election of other candidates would not?

    More importantly, what is the radical feminist response to an incident such as the following, one involving one of my favourite former Collingwood football *s? And do you agree with ‘Josh’ when he claims that “You all know none of these ‘don’t touch me once i’ve dropped the ball’ girls would last five minutes in the AFL!”?

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