Now, look at Bernie Sanders, who puts zero effort into smiling. He's zoomed in popularity even though his natural face looks angry and he speaks in an angry voice.
What if Hillary's natural demeanor were as angry looking and sounding as Bernie's and she just let it show? It would not work, would it? That's why she's decided she must smile and laugh and put in all that effort. Think about why it wouldn't work. If you think, it's because she's a woman, she'd be perceived as a shrew and hated, congratulations, you're a feminist. There are other answers, of course, and I expect to see them in the comments. Here. I'll get us started:
1. Natural demeanor? There's nothing natural about Hillary. Anything she might attempt to do now would be fake and properly rejected as fake.
2. Whatever anger she's got in there would not be the refreshing, righteous anger we get from Bernie. It would be horrifying and disgusting, and that's why she doesn't show it and why we'd recoil from it.
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Hillary is the woman who returns, "Good morning, Maam," with "Fuck you !"
I'm not sure that sells well.
When Bill was president, she had a rule that no one was to look at her when she walked through hallways.
A charmer.
Hillary is the new Nixon.
Angry is how women operate in a man's world, shouldering men aside. Stamping of tiny foot adds to the effect.
Their specific interests operate in a different sphere, creating spaces, where that does not happen.
The better idea is to "be angry and sin not." That is a righteous anger because it accepts boundaries to what anger motivation will make one do.
Hillary's being so SECRETIVE, prevents any feeling of trust in what she will do with her anger. She will probably sell anybody and everybody out for Speaking Fees and Donations to her Family. That is all she has ever done with it.
Lots of anger this season. Trump, Cruz, Sanders. Their anger is directed at the problems America is facing now. Hillary has every reason to be angry, but it is all personal stuff. I doubt that the state of the Republic even enters into it.
She has a life time of anger based on her decision to put up with Bill's cheating, in return for her receiving power. It has been time to collect her debt for over a decade, and it is slipping away pretty fast.
Many housewives in the 50's and 60's made the same deal. I don't think it worked out that well.
Hillary seems like she could snap just about anytime now. Living a lie will do that to you.
Hillary is disgusted that she has a competitive race
Bernie is shocked that he's in a competitive race.
"Stamping of tiny foot..."
I remember when some women had tiny feet. An ordinary shoe store had some shoes in sizes 4 and 5. But that was long ago. Women have huge feet nowadays. Haven't you noticed? Huuuuge.
"In the US, the average female foot was a 6.5 in the 1960s (equivalent to UK size 4), rising to 7.5 in the 1970s (UK 5). Today, the average American woman has a shoe size between 8.5 and 9 – equivalent to a UK 6.5. Kate Winslet is US size 11 (UK 8.5) and Rihanna a US 9 (UK 6.5). That is a substantial increase in a relatively short time. But this is no Darwinian effect. There is no survival advantage to having bigger feet in the 21st century."
If you think, it's because she's a woman, she'd be perceived as a shrew and hated, congratulations, you're a feminist.
I think it's because she's a woman and she'd be perceived as a shrew and hated. However, I'm not a feminist because I believe that perception would be accurate, and the hatred justified.
It's not stamping anymore. It's stomping.
The fear of female anger is elemental. It's Mother.
The fear of female anger is elemental. It's Mother.
It's first wife, not mother.
8 years of Obama has made a lot of people mad! Both Trump and Sanders are shocking because both are so visibly angry, all the time.
I think part of it is that these men seem honest and open. There's no façade, no calm boring exterior. They are both the anti-Obama.
It's like Hillary is trying to be Obama, calm and in control. But she's really, really bad at it. Obama's calm façade seems genuine. Hillary seems like a fraud.
If anyone has Obama's personality this election cycle, I would suggest it's Cruz. Very calm and unflappable. Partisans detect anger underneath Cruz (just like Republicans detect a lot of anger in Obama). I think Cruz's "my way or the highway" approach will cause a lot of problems for him, just like it did for Obama.
The media gets to decide what you get away with. Joe Biden gets away with saying dumb things, but Sarah Palin doesn't (heck, Palin doesn't even get away with having people who play her say dumb things). Bernie Sanders gets away with being angry, but Republicans don't. Does Hillary? We don't know because she hasn't tried.
Hillary! represents and embodies all those words we were warned we can't say or write during this campaign or else be accused of being sexist. Once again when it comes to Mrs. Clinton we are not allowed to approach anything that resembles the truth.
"There are other answers, of course, and I expect to see them in the comments." And, as you imply, all are bound to be unfair. The poor woman just can't catch a break. No grandma should have to put up with that. Solution that works for everyone: a graceful retirement from the public stage, so that she and her rapist hubby can enjoy their grifters' loot in peace.
There have been no exposes about Hillary by ex-aides because they fear her. When she is finally put away on the has-been shelf, I expect a flood of tell all books.
We might even get to see the ABC miniseries "The Path to 9/11" again.
Hillary has spent her whole career marketing her femaleness. (Imagine a male politician whose main claim to fame was standing by a serially unfaithful wife--he'd be laughed out of office.) Now she has no choice but to conform to the stereotypes of proper female behavior. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Trump is angry because he sees an America falling apart.
Hillary's anger is at the American people: the ones that don't appreciate her for the crosses she has had to bear, the ones that don't love her like they love(d) her husband.
She does not understand that many people see those crosses as her own choosing, and borne in the pursuit of individual gain at the expense of others.
Her smile IS her anger: she won't let you have the satisfaction of knowing you have made her angry.
Then there is the Vodka.
I am Laslo.
Is there nothing that can not be exploited by female chauvinists?
A smile improves the aesthetics of your countenance, and in the absence of a psychotic personality, reflects a positive disposition that is endearing to other people.
Make life, not abortion.
The fear of female anger is elemental. It's Mother.
I've never understood this sentiment and, as I get older (closing in on 46), it makes less sense. Sure, I can remember my mother being angry at various points throughout my childhood, but it was my dad we didn't want to piss off :) Now, as I raise my own kids and deal with my own adult life, the concept of a mother's anger as somehow a fabric of the universe resonates less and less with me.
Wow smile more was the advise I got from a tenure panel member and I have was thinking WTF I am a serious researcher.. I didn't know that it was a feminist issue.
Hillary should tone her happy happy face down. All is not well. But she as a woman can never pull off angry Bernie or Trump. She would be called shrill and angry.
They both abnormally unattractive angry and happy faces.
Ann Althouse said, "I remember when some women had tiny feet. An ordinary shoe store had some shoes in sizes 4 and 5. But that was long ago. Women have huge feet nowadays."
Larger feet to support larger bodies? But, is a "size 5" shoe anything like what used to be a "size 5"?
"In 1958, for example, a size 8 corresponded with a bust of 31 inches, a waist of 23.5 inches and a hip girth of 32.5 inches. In ASTM’s 2008 standards, a size 8 had increased by five to six inches in each of those three measurements, becoming the rough equivalent of a size 14 or 16 in 1958. We can see size inflation happening over shorter time spans as well; a size 2 in the 2011 ASTM standard falls between a 1995 standard size 4 and 6."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/11/the-absurdity-of-womens-clothing-sizes-in-one-chart/
(As for Hillary!, she's just ugly through-and-through; therefore, it only makes sense that she'd want to display as little of "the real Hillary" as possible.)
A good rule for a litigator is that when you're bleeding don't show it. We saw Cruz nodding approvingly and smiling during the last GOP debate when Trump hit him hard on the NY values issues. HRC tends to smile and shrug off allegations against her as if she's both patient and amused by the political antics of her opponents. It's a good strategy.
Hillary's smile has the naturalness of that of Mr. Sardonicus.
I am Laslo.
Joe Biden is Mr Sardonicus, Laslo. The point has been explicitly made: link
Been a while since I've listened to Hillary! laugh, but she's got that "yuck, yuck, yuck" sound, and the only people before her that laughed that way were The Three Stooges.
By the way, how funny can you be with an "!" on the end of your name?
Hillary is in an awful position, as she's aware she is unlikable but does not have the skills to either become more liked or the stomach to say "who cares" and embrace her unlikability. Like Nixon, it's almost excruciating to watch someone plow into politics despite such a lack of personality skills. I feel like my generation was too young to experience Nixon, but we're getting a more grotesque version to make up for it.
And to clear this up--anger is not an unappealing thing in women. As with men, anger can be used effectively, particularly if it at least seems genuine. If it appears inappropriate, or calculating, it backfires. Hillary cannot deploy anger, but that is not because she is a woman--it is because she is always calculating and has no sense of appropriateness. So now she is doing psychotic laughter that even has the Hillary-friendly venue SNL making jokes about it.
As another wag already wrote: Hillary makes America grate again.
Hillary has been a card carrying member of the establishment since 1993, and has had positions where she is responsible for a lot of the way today's status quo is. If she is angry -- she's either angry at the electorate, angry at people who are trying to hold her to account, or angry at herself. None of those positions would inspire someone to elect her.
Since the shrew and the nagging woman are all American archetypes, I can understand why there is a "feminism" component to the argument. But think of recent candidates who have looked angry -- McCain, Howard Dean, Bob Dole. They all lost badly. There is a pretty good argument that anger does not sell.
The phony-baloney smile doesn't work for O'Malley either so it's not a sexist thing, Althouse. The smile worked for Obama for the same reason it works for Hillary: People don't want to see the "angry black man." But also, there's still the Lena Dunham-fueled "Obama is so hot" which other women tend to fall for. Hilary lacks that advantage.
Smile has an interesting etymology in English and other languages: link. :)
Hillary! does not get angry about politics; it is just business.
But she is not a natural business woman, so it is all by consultants and focus groups.
And the Clintons are not members of the establishment; they are Bonnie and Clyde living off the establishment.
Obama won because he has a beautiful voice and speaking manner.
Hillary's voice is her biggest weakness. Shrill and prone to sounding like a witch. She sounds better when she's shouting, actually, than when she's talking at normal volume.
Cruz has the same problem: he sounds like a con man much of the time. (Give up the "is is" "if if" stutter, dude; it's obviously fake.)
Rubio sounds like a teen. Trump sounds like a New York jerk.
Biden could maybe swoop in partly because he has a nice voice and cadence.
Bonnie and Clyde were stick-up artists; the Clintons are more like like a mob couple providing booze and other services to "the establishment," but I am not knowledgeable enough to cite any such from the period.
Amexpat comes closest to the answer. The Clntons' basic tactic in handling the scandels that follow them is deflection and dismissal. It's old news, we've already addressed that, it's a nothing burger, small potatoes, etc. Smiling and laughing supports dismissal. Anger conotes confrontation, and draws attention to the issue suggesting that it might in fact be serious. It's as simple as that. See also Reagan in teflon president mode.
Or an updated, upscaled, and much more sophisticated version of Ma and Pa Ferguson.
"We can see size inflation happening over shorter time spans as well; a size 2 in the 2011 ASTM standard falls between a 1995 standard size 4 and 6."
As a guy who is 78 next month and who has shrunk about two inches since my spine fusion 20 years ago, I am constantly amazed at how tall young women are nowadays. One of my daughters is close to six feet and that is not at all unusual. Neither her mother nor I are particularly tall. I have one son who is six two and his youngest daughter looks like she will be at least as tall as he is. She is only 7 but is as tall as her 11 year old brother, who is not short.
Maybe the big feet are to keep them from falling over.
Babs Boxer comes to mind. She went absolutely orgasmic in dressing down the General. He had the gall to refer to her as ma'am. "I worked really hard to earn the title Senator, so ..., bitch, bitch, bitch!"
I can't wait until Hill can let her hair down and get to the nut-cutting!
[Bernie has] zoomed in popularity even though his natural face looks angry and he speaks in an angry voice.
Bernie is an angry preacher. He's angry because he knows that he is right about everything and not enough people are agreeing with him. So he yells at them.
Bernie Sanders as president would make Obama look like a model of humility.
"Rubio sounds like a teen."
That's it!
He talks fast and tries to get everything possible into the point he is making. A weak sense that less is often more.
"It's first wife, not mother."
That's not the elemental level. What's deep in your psyche is Mother. If you think it's your first wife, take responsibility for what you did: marrying your mother.
What kind of man is afraid of his wife? A man reverting to childhood, seeing his mother.
"I've never understood this sentiment and, as I get older (closing in on 46), it makes less sense. Sure, I can remember my mother being angry at various points throughout my childhood, but it was my dad we didn't want to piss off :) Now, as I raise my own kids and deal with my own adult life, the concept of a mother's anger as somehow a fabric of the universe resonates less and less with me."
Maybe you are not afflicted with the fear of female anger. Good! That sounds healthy. I'm talking about the men who are.
Now if there's a smile on my face
It's only there trying to fool the public
But when it comes down to fooling you
Now honey that's quite a different subject
But don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Really I'm sad, oh sadder than sad
You're gone and I'm hurting so bad
Like a clown I pretend to be glad
Now there's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than
the tears of a clown
When there's no one around
Ten hours of Hillary LOL!
It seems as if all Hillary has are two extremes -- shrill yelling, or forced, wide-eyed, rictus grin cackle. In addition to all the ethical baggage she and Bill come with, I really don't want to listen to either version of Hillary for the next 4 or 8 years.
Is Sanders' anger really all that appealing? He reminds me of a bitter, resentful divorced old codger I worked with for years. Nice enough guy, but every day he'd tell everyone within earshot the same tales of woe about how his ex fucked him over & how if not for her how much better he'd be living & all I could think was "do something to improve your life or shut the fuck up." Replace "ex-wife" with "billionaires" & there's Bernie. Plus, he juts his bottom teeth out too much.
"The fear of female anger is elemental. It's Mother"
Your Mother, perhaps. No, Mother is love and tolerance. Hillary is clearly not Mother, which is why the whole Vagina! thing may not grant her the votes she assumes she is entitled to.
My comment re Rush and Cruz's "unnaturalness" :
I like Trump.
My theory on Cruz's demeanor. It's his face. Without expression he appears to be smirking, smart-ass. When he is smirking, which is often, he looks even more obnoxious.
This is why those posters that show him shirtless and tattooed "Blacklisted and Loving it" works so well. He looks like Robert Mitchum in "Cape Fear". Actually Robert Mitchum has the same face-at-rest natural smirk, but on him it works.
That guy Koskinen, head of IRS - same thing.
Cruz's facial expressions are pure Duping Delight. He is thinking these Conservative Americans are way too easy to fool.
If I listen to Hillary's shrill cackle/screech for the duration of the next Democrat debate, I will forgive Bill for all his transgressions.
I already feel sorry for him—listen to the shrill scold he had to live with.
Angry? Where should Hillary direct her anger. Listening to her talking points you find things like:
-Rich bankers/Wall Street - like getting angry at yourself"We were so po' when we left the White House...
- War on women.. you mean like angry at men? - We still come close to half the eligible voters.
- Health care - Visions of Hillary care come to mind.
- Rape - Now THAT was an abortive try.
- Reproductive rights - Are they really under attack?
Hell, if it were not so grotesque I'd expect her to be grinning and cackling all the time.
Ann Althouse said...
What kind of man is afraid of his wife? A man reverting to childhood, seeing his mother.
1/19/16, 10:09 AM
What kind of woman is afraid of her husband?
"Stop telling women to Smile"? Oy vey, the Left is so wacked out, they wanna wreck human civilization.
A pretty woman's smile is one of the best things on Planet Earth, for god's sake.
How far these embittered feminists Harpies have fallen from the great Mary Tyler Moore:
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it's you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it
Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all
You're gonna make it after all
Have we ever had an angry president?
Do we want one?
You know what' going to be cool? The look on Hillary's face when she finally realizes she's not going to be president. That would be worth the price of admission.
Maybe you are not afflicted with the fear of female anger. Good! That sounds healthy. I'm talking about the men who are.
Well, there is the whole problem of not being able to defend yourself.
I can give you an example. I was engaged and had moved with my then-fiancée up to NJ from SC. She became more unhinged as we were up there ("This house is cursed by demons and it is YOUR fault, Mike"). She became violent shortly after.
Now, when I decided to leave her, she decided to ambush me with a phone to the head (giving me my first concussion ever) and attack me for, literally, 20 minutes straight. I had to deal with the realization that ANYTHING I did would put me in jail. She has a bruise on her and the cop isn't going to spend the time to figure out who was to blame. She'd be in jail also (maybe), but she had family nearby who'd bail her out. I didn't have that. So I had to sit there and take it until she wore herself out.
So, for months, I had to walk on eggshells to avoid that explosion that came when I decided to walk out.
I had her arrested on the way out the door, mind you. Fuck taking that nonsense with no payback.
The phony-baloney smile doesn't work for O'Malley either so it's not a sexist thing, Althouse.
That doesn't show that sexism isn't at work. Of the two male candidates, one (O'Malley) smiles a lot, and the other (Sanders) generally seems angry and doesn't smile much (though he does sometimes). The latter has been surprisingly successful, while the former seems to be going nowhere. Clinton is often pretty dour, but it would seem like a nonstarter for her to be as relentlessly angry as Sanders. So Clinton has to be at least somewhat cheerful. The fact that O'Malley's sunny demeanor hasn't succeeded just shows that the sexism goes the other way too: men aren't supposed to be too cheerful.
Good point, John. In fact, I think O'Malley has trouble because he doesn't fully deploy his masculinity. He's a tall, handsome man, and he seems like he thinks he should tone it down so as not to be overpowering. His manner of speech feels almost childlike. Our reaction to him could be sex discrimination.
Look at the impersonations of him on comedy shows or the way he was portrayed in Bad Lip Reading. He seems babyish.
@Hagar I've often thought the Clintons were bartenders at the party we threw after the wall came down spending the peace dividend (with Bill helping himself to "pieces").
Yes, these are really the bottom-line animalistic rules (or conventional, if you prefer). As usual Ann doesn't say if these are *her* feelings+beliefs. We all see your limbs fold into your core / touch your face, your eyes dart, your head turn; we all hear your voice cracked and breathy with tension. Maybe a small part of us is weighing the informational content (which so far after ten debates adds up to about zilch). The men we'll choose had better register a certain way as presences; the women, a different way.
Where's the reaction to Hillary's "men are worse because they're men; vote for me" messaging? I can hardly believe any man would throw her a vote - these must be people whose identity is not "man" but "deeply committed to a [woman's right to choose! gun control! $20k/year UBI!]". Or that somehow anti-man noises aren't really taken seriously. Are you crying, little boy?
Maybe you are not afflicted with the fear of female anger. Good! That sounds healthy. I'm talking about the men who are.
Not a judgement on the relative merits, but more an application of logic. Of those men that have mother-fear issues, it would seem to follow that they came from single-parent, mother-led households.
Forget Bonnie and Clyde, or the mob--the Clintons are our very own Thénardiers.
Despite all this behavioral analysis, Hillary will win the presidency because she has the money, the organization, the corruption, the lack of ethics, the amorality, the yearning for power, and most importantly the Ohio precinct officials that will provide her with a fraudulent number of votes sufficient to overcome whatever number of votes the Republicans obtain.
She is Eleanor Iselin with our entire country as the target of her rage instead of the Russians. God have mercy on us all, for 10 minutes after the swearing in, she will have none.
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