Book Reviews
30 Ways of Looking At Hillary, Edited By Susan Morrison
Feburary, 2009
If every woman in America had voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election, she would have won. So, why didn’t they? Thirty Ways of Looking At Hillary, edited by Susan Morrison, takes a many sided look at the woman who has provoked the most intense and emotional opinions from voters of any candidate in our history. It is a compilation of thirty short essays about Hillary Clinton written by female writers from Vogue, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and many more esteemed publications. Written during the race for the Democratic nomination, it provides a unique insight on what turns voters on and off to Hillary, as well as why she’s had so many hairstyles, what her hobbies might be, and whether Bill would be willing to wash her underpants.
Upon opening the book, I assumed the writing would be biased in both directions and that each essay would take a very stark view on the candidate. I assumed the author would back up their reasoning with facts regarding her vote on Iraq, her failed attempt at healthcare reform, or her economic policy. The essays are not, however, a campaign ad for or against Clinton. In fact, it is often hard to determine the author’s opinion on the candidate at all. Instead, the book analyzes her character, choices, and personality, through thirty short essays often focusing on one specific aspect at a time. The specificity ranges from one essay titled Beyond Gender, which recaps her life as a whole focusing on her role as a female candidate, to Hillary’s Underpants which discusses the role she and Bill would play in comparison to other first couples (leaving the reader, of course, with the image of Bill washing out Hillary’s clothes and underpants in a hotel room while they campaign on the road together).
Bias and opinions do leak through, but the overall arching questions that one is left at the end of the read are important ones: Why does it matter that Hillary Clinton showed some cleavage? What is so frightening about a leader who seems cold in disposition, and is this “coldness” a feminine trait? Why is the image of Bill washing out Hillary’s clothes so funny anyway?
The election is over now, and a man once again sits in the Oval Office. Granted, he is African American, a big step for the American people, but is it because he’s a man that he’s there? Although Thirty Ways of Looking At Hillary makes predictions of a future we already know the outcome of, it is an excellent way to reflect on a historical and often perplexing campaign. Who knows? The questions it poses, and analysis it provides may even be enough, so that next time around we get Madam President marching toward 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
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