Whether or not Hillary is your preferred candidate, it would be irresponsible to claim that her victory would not mean a great deal to American women. To have someone who truly understands our struggles and will champion our causes, is valuable. But in this opinion piece from The Independent today, a woman points out something that had not yet occurred to me. One of the most powerful things that Hillary is doing, is not hiding her age.
Miriam O'Callaghan is a middle aged woman who is choosing not to have any work done on her body. She wants her daughter to see aging as "an achievement of years and experience, not a betrayal by time." She looks for women who are not afraid to be themselves for role models. And she has found one she truly admires in Hillary Clinton.
Miriam says
In her campaign to become the Leader of the Free World, she is a 67-year-old woman having the absolute gall to look like a 67-year-old woman. Without 'work'. In refusing to subject herself to the risk of general anaesthesia, clostridium botulinum, a scalpel, dermal facial fillers, or plain stupidity, she is a very public woman making a very public statement. Here's me. The sum of my experience. Yes, I want to be the first woman POTUS. But no, I won't be making myself look 20 years younger and therefore more 'acceptable'. Signally, she is saying this in a culture despising of age and idolatrous of youth.
and
But for those of us who, for now, are embracing our years and careers, without the desire to turn back time and obliterate the evidence of it on our bodies, we owe Hillary Clinton. Big time...In her ambition to put her probably-sandpapery, not-so-firm backside firmly in the seat of global power, she is determined to show her best, experienced, 'unimproved' self.
Clearly, this is not enough of a reason to choose Hillary as our presidential candidate. But if you wonder why so many women are excited about her run, or why we object to the insults hurled at her, please remember that a woman as president would be just as game changing as an African-American man. It would matter to the women of this country in many powerful ways.