I think it is very important that we recognize the amount of misogyny that has transpired over H. Clinton's bid for the nomination and I also think juxtaposing that misogyny to the popularity of Sex in the City is brilliant (a show that my students continue to tell me is "really diverse"—because each of the 4 women have really different attitudes about sex...  there are so many different ways white women can relate themselves to men!  Imagine that?).  Still, I am not sure how helpful it is to say "if similarly hateful racial remarks had been made about Obama, our nation would have turned itself inside out in a paroxysm of soul-searching and shame.   Had mainstream commentators in 2000 speculated, say, that Joe Lieberman had a nose for dough, or made funny Shylock references, heads would have rolled."  Racism and anti-Semitism don't operate in the exact same ways that sexism and misogyny do, so why would we expect such easy comparisons?  While I imagine
 the statement is intended to emphasize how far we have *not* come with regard to sexism and misogyny, it can (and I think does) have the effect of making it seem like we *have* come a long way with regard to racism and anti-semitism/Christo-normativity. And the ironic thing (to my mind) is that one of the reasons (I believe) that we don't hear blatant racist jokes out in the open in the media is precisely because white America wants so much to pretend that race & racism do not exist anymore (one of the ways racism operates: problem? what problem?) —so it would seem that many would be very quick to read the statement in the "wow racism just doesn’t exist anymore, does it?" way. Consequently, the _effect_ of the statement is to make a (purportedly) feminist point off the backs of people of color and nonChristians, isn't it?  

There's been plenty of racism abounding in this primary and the Obamas lives have been plenty disrupted by it--they can't even join a new religious community until the campaign is over for fear that reporters will continually disrupt that community hoping to get sound bites that will scare white America.  The fact that that racism comes in ways that are different from the ways in which sexism comes should be no surprise to this list.  Easy comparisons at the expense of nonChristian women and women of color only undermine feminist work.

In Solidarity,

GP, jr.