Hillary Clinton’s fault
It took only a stumble of Hillary Clinton to expose the hidden sexism in the media
The writer is an Islamabad-based TV journalist and tweets @FarrukhKPitafi
Let’s face it. Had it not been for the lofty ideas like gender equality trickling in from the West many of us convinced of now of these ideals would still have been looking at women as inferior beings. Women’s emancipation is not exactly the forte of the South Asian cultures, is it? West and its cultural might helped us see what we refused to see. Then came Hollywood with its riveting imagery and storytelling and some great female leads. And men like me were inspired. Men like me now would look at their daughters everyday with pride and think someday they might grow up to their full potential and beat countless men in their chosen fields of interest. That’s the magic touch we needed. But then the teacher started developing problems of its own. First of racism, then of sexism.
It took only a stumble of Hillary Clinton to expose the hidden sexism in the media. Many news outlets just swooped down on the woman running for the highest office in her singular moment of weakness. She was guilty. Guilty of carrying some exotic, stigmatic, wasting disease and of hiding it from public. Guilty until proven innocent. I am relieved that no one has asked her to walk barefooted on a bed of burning embers to prove her innocence yet. But who knows?
Wait a minute. Is it not the same country that was led to victory through the greatest of all wars by a man in a wheelchair? Is it not the country that triumphed over the red peril mainly due to the labours of a man suffering from dementia who also survived a painful assassination attempt? Apparently, it has different standards for women because Mrs Clinton and her campaign have been hounded by the press just for appearing weak on camera. For Trump there obviously is a different criterion because a health note written by his doctor, in a language symptomatic of someone stoned or under influence, did attract as much criticism.
And then people started floating alternative names for the race. Vice President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary Kerry and Cory Booker are a few names discussed. They are all excellent candidates but in my humble view the only candidate who could prove more convincing than Mrs Clinton is retiring after two full terms as America’s commander in chief.
It must take totally perverted logic and a total failure to see not to recognise the start difference between Trump and Clinton. And there lies the biggest bias ever. The excesses Mrs Clinton is accused of pale before Trump’s legacy and that of his cheerleaders. They say she might have accepted charity from big businesses that might present a case of conflict of interest. Are you kidding me? The alternative is big business, a charlatan and a conman to boot. More worrying than corporate sector’s influence on American government is to hand over reins of power to one corporate entity. Imagine the damage it would do to the competition which is lifeblood of American capitalism. Doesn’t Trump’s America remind you of Biff’s world from Back to the future II?
They say she failed to protect the US ambassador in Benghazi. This from the admirers of a president during whose government twin towers were brought down by terrorists and thousands of soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan. And since when is solely responsible for this but not for bringing down America’s most wanted enemy? Notice any double standards?
And oh the cherry on the top. She must have hidden state secrets in her emails on her private server. But it is okay for Sean Hannity to praise Julian Assange on live television and for Trump to ask Russians to look for her missing emails? But they let it go. They let Trump call Hillary names. Crooked Hillary and what not. They let it pass when he says he could shoot someone and not lose votes or ask second amendment people to take care of her.
The world is broken today because America is broken. And it wasn’t broken by Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama but their own beloved George W Bush. Clinton is the best candidate in the arena. And yet they don’t want to appreciate it.
And let me be honest here. I don’t think any outcome of November elections will affect my country dramatically. But we are learning democratisation by example. About time our American teacher stops teaching us wrong lessons and embrace its own values.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2016.
It took only a stumble of Hillary Clinton to expose the hidden sexism in the media. Many news outlets just swooped down on the woman running for the highest office in her singular moment of weakness. She was guilty. Guilty of carrying some exotic, stigmatic, wasting disease and of hiding it from public. Guilty until proven innocent. I am relieved that no one has asked her to walk barefooted on a bed of burning embers to prove her innocence yet. But who knows?
Wait a minute. Is it not the same country that was led to victory through the greatest of all wars by a man in a wheelchair? Is it not the country that triumphed over the red peril mainly due to the labours of a man suffering from dementia who also survived a painful assassination attempt? Apparently, it has different standards for women because Mrs Clinton and her campaign have been hounded by the press just for appearing weak on camera. For Trump there obviously is a different criterion because a health note written by his doctor, in a language symptomatic of someone stoned or under influence, did attract as much criticism.
And then people started floating alternative names for the race. Vice President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary Kerry and Cory Booker are a few names discussed. They are all excellent candidates but in my humble view the only candidate who could prove more convincing than Mrs Clinton is retiring after two full terms as America’s commander in chief.
It must take totally perverted logic and a total failure to see not to recognise the start difference between Trump and Clinton. And there lies the biggest bias ever. The excesses Mrs Clinton is accused of pale before Trump’s legacy and that of his cheerleaders. They say she might have accepted charity from big businesses that might present a case of conflict of interest. Are you kidding me? The alternative is big business, a charlatan and a conman to boot. More worrying than corporate sector’s influence on American government is to hand over reins of power to one corporate entity. Imagine the damage it would do to the competition which is lifeblood of American capitalism. Doesn’t Trump’s America remind you of Biff’s world from Back to the future II?
They say she failed to protect the US ambassador in Benghazi. This from the admirers of a president during whose government twin towers were brought down by terrorists and thousands of soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan. And since when is solely responsible for this but not for bringing down America’s most wanted enemy? Notice any double standards?
And oh the cherry on the top. She must have hidden state secrets in her emails on her private server. But it is okay for Sean Hannity to praise Julian Assange on live television and for Trump to ask Russians to look for her missing emails? But they let it go. They let Trump call Hillary names. Crooked Hillary and what not. They let it pass when he says he could shoot someone and not lose votes or ask second amendment people to take care of her.
The world is broken today because America is broken. And it wasn’t broken by Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama but their own beloved George W Bush. Clinton is the best candidate in the arena. And yet they don’t want to appreciate it.
And let me be honest here. I don’t think any outcome of November elections will affect my country dramatically. But we are learning democratisation by example. About time our American teacher stops teaching us wrong lessons and embrace its own values.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2016.