In January ’07, after hearing and reading a bunch of really nasty misogynistic Hillary bashing, I created a Hillary Google Index of terms I searched next to "HIllary Clinton," below. For some wacky reason, our recent conversation with the folks over at Glennsacks.com has made me want to revisit it. Here with updated results from today, is the Index, with last year’s results and results after re-searching it today. Feel free to add your own.
As Googled, hit counts for:
“Hillary Clinton” (in quotes) and
jan. ’07 / april ’08
“bitch”: 442,000 / 391,000
“dyke” 79,600 / 128,000
“whore”: 313,000 / 292,000
“cunt” 91,900 / 183,000
“hero” 940,000 / 3,280,000
“butch” 68,400 / 155,000
“cankles” 1,210 / 15,000
“lesbian” 550,000 / 403,000
“slut” 142,000 / 563,000
“patriot” 815,000 / 441,000
“feminist” 278,000 / 1,360,000
“electable” 75,100 / 585,000
“unelectable” 34,500 / 147,000
“president” 1,400,000 / 2.370,000
“communist” 673,000 / 374,000
Below is the post I wrote last Jan. that acoompanied the index. What to make of the updated numbers, I’m not sure. Generally, both positive and negative numbers jumped as the race heats up, as one might expect. But do fewer people on the interweb think of HIllary as a "cunt" or a "whore" than did last year? Has the level of discourse actually elevated a little? I expected the numbers to tell me more, to be honest. Here’s what I wrote last year. For the most part, it still stands:
"What can we surmise from this (aside from the fact that some people like Hillary a lot while others despise her)? Well, for one, that the insults are fairly equally divided between calling Hillary a woman who sleeps with too many men (slut, whore) and calling her a woman who doesn’t sleep with men at all (dyke, lesbian), or sometimes, confusedly calling her both (“dyke whore” came up several times) and just calling her the words that woman haters use to signify woman (cunt, bitch). A lot of the insults involve her looks (cow, troll, cankles). It’s really quite lovely stuff, and, while I can’t prove it, it’s obvious that nearly all of this venom is coming from men, men whose masculinity is uniquely challenged by the senator from the great state of New York by way of Arkansas. The obvious reasons for this burst of insecurity-fueled venom are that she is not feminine or wifely, not a lady, and that she’s assertive and powerful and, well, you know the list."
"But I think there’s another factor for a lot of these men. They hate hate hate Hillary’s husband and Hillary not only doesn’t seem to hate Bill, but, to all appearances, didn’t punish him for his many dalliances, something that these men, if they have wives, can’t claim. These men probably don’t have the opportunity to dally at all (ie they’re pathetic losers who sit at home posting misogynist spews on the web), and if they did so, and got caught, would end up bitterly divorced and/or punished forever."
"Whether or not Hillary actually has punished Bill or de facto divorced him are matters for speculation. But in public, she seems to support him, and (even more infuriating!) he stand by her, and that hurts these men as much as anything."
"But as many Hill-haters as there are, as a New Yorker, I take issue with the people who say Hillary’s too unpopular to be elected, who say she was only reelected by such a landslide because she’s in a liberal state. NY just isn’t such a liberal state. Not only was our former governor very popular as a conservative Republican, when I was a kid, a reactionary Senator name of D’Amato won state-wide elections year after year. If anything, it’s a lack of charisma that could do her in. But if the Dems can bring out female voters, Hillary could very well be the next president of the United States."
"I’m not a Hillary fan, certainly not a hater. I’ve never seen such vile hatred of one woman as I’ve seen of her. But then again, I wasn’t around when Eleanor Roosevelt was first lady."
p.s. On the radio today (Air America, 4/8/08) I heard a republican strategist repeatedly refer to Senator C. as "Mrs. Clinton" which I found reprehensibly, diabolically brilliant. Mrs. Clinton, indeed.
