Finding Your Gender Roots (in War)

Voting Hillary and Gender:
Differences Matter

I cry and whine a lot that it’s okay to do what I think so many people want to confess as a preference: to vote for Hillary Clinton simply because, on top of all the qualities, she is a woman. And as I’ve written before, women think and thus act differently than men, even under fairly common circumstances. Thus, what President Woman will do in practice may not be fully possible to predict, but will clearly be more consistent with the way women think than not.

I was thinking of this last evening. I watched the new episode of Finding Your Roots on a PBS station. The guests having their histories dissected were Neil Patrick Harris, Gloria Steinem, and Sandra Cisneros. It is worth watching for one reason and one reason alone. Watch how the two women speak towards the end of war and the nobility of having soldiers in one’s family.

Gloria, in particular, said, prefacing her comment with an unneeded comment to quell the audience, that she doesn’t see nobility in glorifying war at all. Pointing to the books on the supposed “Greatest Generation” of military fighters from WW2, she basically said, “I think the greatest generation will be that which never goes to war.” Not hesitation, really. War sucks and has no value.

Then there was Sandra Cisneros, reflecting on military exploitation and intimidation in Mexico during the early years of the 1900s as I recall. Speaking generally of that country’s army tactics, she said in essence that she sees nothing noble either. They tortured and blackmailed men to leave their families to die in needless vain. Her ancestors fled the country to work in backbreaking agricultural settings rather than be killed for political ignorance. Of that she had admiration.

To be fair for those who feel I would reverse discrimination otherwise: Neil Patrick Harris, the only man on the show as a guest, had more fun with possibly having a witch who was stupidly murdered in his lineage. He was funny and very gay.

The differences between how these women contemplate the place of war is stark. Many men likely squirmed. Most importantly, though, to me their words and convictions say an enormous amount about how smart women see the world they live in and come from.

If you have issues with considering gender as a single, formative consideration in the pending election, watch this show. Then think that through again.