To cry or not to cry, that is the question.
Every women in business, politics, basically any situation outside of the home, will come to a point in her life when she wonders if crying will doom her career prospects or take her down a notch when it comes to garnering respect from others. Many of the executive women I’ve interviewed during my career have told me they always saved their tears for the company bathroom, or held emotions in until they got home.
Hillary Clinton threw caution to the wind when she got a bit teary on the campaign trail and reporters like me are still talking about it. (Sorry for that.)
But I just felt compelled to ask you all about your opinion of the Oliphant cartoon I include up to the left. You can also see it more closely here.
It shows Clinton crying in front of the a host of world leaders, and a terrorist or two. It’s hard to tell. She’s saying: “You guys are mean!.”
And, in a small bubble at the bottom left, there’s a tiny cartoon of Clinton’s hubby bill saying, “This is when PMS goes nuclear.”
OK, what’s your take?
Is this just what women will always be subjected to? Should we become enraged, or laugh it off?
January 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I saw this Oliphant cartoon when it was published. I have to say that I thought it really stepped over a line. Which is embarrassing, because the guy went to the same small school I did - and I had always thought that the place taught us better than to demean someone because of their gender. It’s the kind of thing I would have expected to see 20 or 30 years ago, but not now. And also the reason Hillary probably has never cracked her facade before. So although I support Obama, this makes me more sympathetic to Hillary.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
It seems we are going back in time when you look at cartoons like this. Or maybe he’s way ahead of us. Could it be he’s trying to point out something about all of us, about gender differences…that we should be able to mock anything and just be able to move on?
Or, is he just being a jerk?