I Am Not Proud to Be a Woman in This "Historical Moment"

Writer Shana East discusses political messages, campaign tactics, and the effect they have on women in this post originally featured on Medium.

I have had to become a fighter in order to be "successful." Much like Muhammad Ali's repeated proclamations that he was, "The Greatest"; I have had to become my own "hype man" to get myself pumped up for each day's fight. As women, we have to fight twice as hard as men do to be recognized for our work. In actuality, not only do we have to fight twice as hard, but we have to be twice as good at whatever we are doing to not be scrutinized (and even then, we still are). Every woman who has put her work up on the internet or put herself out there in the public eye knows what I am talking about. If you are a man, give me a call and I will explain what it is like to be a woman; just make sure you have a pen, paper and about a year and a half to take notes. I'm more than happy to introduce you to my fight.

The fighter in me has become so well-trained at age 36, that I sometimes fight with people who are on my side. I put up my dukes so much that I don't always know when to put them down. So when someone says they have experienced sexism, I wholeheartedly understand and empathize.

Mostly.

Over the past year, I have become keenly aware of political messaging and tactics, primarily because I began working in politics in early 2015. Before that, I certainly paid attention to politics, but wasn't living politics in the same way.

[Full disclosure: I have been campaigning on the grassroots level for Bernie Sanders for well over a year now; I was a founding member of the social media juggernaut People for Bernie, and went on to co-found both Illinois for Bernie and The People's Revolution.]

Last spring, I signed up to receive email notifications from Hillary Clinton's campaign and have studied those emails each and every day. I analyze the language and the images used, what messaging is being pushed out, even what her t-shirts and coffee mugs say. I have become so good at predicting "the narrative," that my predictions often end up on CNN or MSNBC later that day! Who knew that political campaigns and mainstream media could be so inextricably linked? Oh, wait! I did.

Being an ardent feminist, I have paid close attention to accusations of sexism that have come up during this election cycle. I am sympathetic to those who experience sexism; it is a reality all women have to cope with. There has not been one instance where I felt the Hillary campaign's narrative of sexism was well founded, and believe me, my support of a male candidate is not going to blind me to this if it were in fact the case. At this stage in the game, I have almost a "sexism spidey-sense," and simply do not get that vibe from Senator Sanders. At all.

Is Secretary Clinton so accustomed to sexism that, like me, she can't put her dukes down? Or is something a little more Svengali-like happening behind the scenes? While all-of-the-above may be true, my "sexism spidey-sense" tells me that what she is doing is exploiting the "female experience."

Sexism, both explicit and implicit, is something that most women have experienced and can easily identify with. The HRC campaign is predicting that the American public, specifically women, are not going to look into the details of these accusations, because they will be blinded by their own experiences with sexism. And for the most part, they are, because women already believe sexism to be true. In fact, the campaign is banking on the fact that most of us are so busy preparing for our daily boxing matches that we aren't engaged enough in the political process to sniff out the B.S. (and I don't mean Bernie Sanders!).

Am I proud to be a woman in this "historical moment"? No, not at all. I think these tactics (including the "first woman to be nominated" narrative) make it harder for women to be successful and be recognized for the work they do. Hillary Clinton has used the "gender card" inappropriately enough times during this campaign, that I overhear people lightheartedly joking about things being "sexist" all the time, as though sexism no longer exists (it does).

Women already have to fight everyday for the respect we deserve; we have to fight twice as hard to not be ridiculed in the workplace, on the internet, in our daily experiences — I would really prefer to not have to fight three or four times harder to have my experiences with sexism taken seriously. Seriously.

We must continue the fight for what we stand for and what we believe in as humans, and cannot resort to identity politics time and time again simply because "it works." It is manipulative and condescending towards the intended audience; please take into consideration that the overwhelming majority of political operatives calling the shots when it comes to campaign messaging are middle-aged, white men. We can't let our voices and our message be silenced by those who exploit our fight for their gain.

Don't believe the hype and keep on fighting the good fight, ladies. ♀

Shana East is a grassroots organizer located in Chicago, Illinois. Last year she began her foray into electoral politics, working on Chuy García's mayoral campaign team. She then went on to be a founding member of People for Bernie, before co-founding the volunteer-run Illinois for Bernie and The People's Revolution along with partner Jackrabbit Pollack in summer 2015. More recently, she was a Bernie 2016 campaign staff member in Illinois.