I'm voting for Hillary Clinton, but I don't think she'll be elected.
I blame Disney and Nickelodeon and even PBS for this.
I watch a lot of kids' programming. Despite trying to be a low screen time Mom, I do. Their current favorites are Paw Patrol, Miles from Tomorrowland, Wild Kratts, Goldie & Bear, Star Wars Rebels, Curious George and Handy Manny. They love the new Lion Guard movie. They like the Lorax, Hotel Transylvania and Puss & Boots. They'll also watched Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins and Bubble Guppies. They'd sit in front of the TV all day if I let them.
We don't watch Cartoon Network. Or even Nickelodeon that much. I'm not a fan of Sponge Bob and I turn off shows that are mean spirited and crude. Yes, I'm the mom that ruins fairytales (or so says my dad).
What does this have to do with Hillary Clinton, right? Everything. Okay, not everything, but a lot.
I may be forcing my sons to talk about why people do mean things to each other in cartoons, alter story endings in books that make girls fall in love with egotistical men in one sentence, and force them to identify their own feelings - but I can't magically make girls appear in leadership roles in their TV shows. The networks have learned enough that they have to show some women and girls. So there's the moms and the sisters. The side characters who may seem smart, but always need help. But the protagonists? The kids who the show is named after? Boys.
So when my little, white sons see all these little, (mostly) white boys being the heroes of their families, their towns and the world, how are they to imagine a woman president? And this is just TV shows. There's also books. Sure, they may say women and men are equal and girls can do anything boys can do, but will they listen to the sound of her voice and, without pinpointing why it sounds off to them, say she's yelling? Or too aggressive? Or when she makes big, executive decisions, as a Secretary of State will and sometimes employs diplomacy or compromise, are they going to question her choices because she was never a little, white boy who saved the planet?
Am I voting for her because she's a woman? No. Does it factor into my decision? Yes. Hillary Clinton is extraordinarily qualified to be president. I think even Republicans would have to agree to that (if her record reflected their values instead). She's fought through moats of crap to rise to the top.
And while I don't agree with every policy decision she's made (is there a person that exists that I'd agree with everything on??), overall she's my pick.
My dad and Jared are voting for Bernie. I agree with a lot of what he says. Money is too much in politics. Major reforms needs to be made. My dad says he loves how progressive Bernie is, how he has been for years. I would argue that you can't get more progressive than a female, democratic president.
We need Hillary more than we need Bernie right now. Stats show when women are empowered and steps closer to economic security - families improve, life improves. Can Bernie speak to women? Sure, the ones who are listening to him. But even the little girls who's families are voting for Donald Trump won't miss the message of a woman president. Her portrait hanging in classrooms and city halls.
Sullivan is two and half right now. If she is elected in the fall, he won't remember a time in his life where a woman hadn't been president. That is a big friggin deal. And to be able to share with Henry that not only is Mom the president of a place he loves to hang out in, but the person in charge of the country is a mom, too.
And I call bullshit on people saying I'm playing the gender card. Maybe it doesn't matter to you (although it should), but it gianormously matters to me. We wouldn't keep sharing dismal statistics on women in leadership if it didn't matter - if our world wasn't totally out of whack (in so many ways, binary gender roles being the tip of an iceberg).
Hardy Girls works with over 500 Maine girls a year. The narrative they hear from media and family and politics and everything is small, small, small. You can't. You won't. You shouldn't. Seeing a woman swearing an oath to lead the country that just elected her shoves a big F that noise through that tiny, limiting, small-minded box of female-ness.
Prove me wrong. Prove to me the country isn't as small I think, as statistics show, as poles show. It happened with Obama (a man who I already miss and am positive I will cry when he leaves office, no matter who replaces him). It could happen. I hope, for my sons, it does.
