But Hey, It Works

Emily Bazelon over at The XX Factor ponders the victimization tactic so skillfully used by Clinton and several of her intellectually dishonest supports (see my recent rant here).

Crying Gender Wolf
Meghan and Hanna, you're helping me put my finger on what's been bothering me this week. It's the crying gender wolf—baking real instances of sexism in the same pie as the made-up slights, or even the nonslights. Example from the Post story today: Obama pulling out Hillary's chair for her at the debates gets cast as a way to take power away from her, as opposed to simple courtesy or a touch of chivalry. The problem with this is the usual crying-wolf problem: It devalues the actual problem of sexism that Hillary confronts, and it's just freaking wearisome. John Dickerson has made the point (in the context of McCain's response to the NYT's Vicki Iseman story) that a candidate can only protest that he or she is getting treated unfairly so many times before it starts to wear thin. There's the skillful taking of umbrage, and then there's whingeing. Also, the even less attractive my-victimization-is-worse-than-your-victimization—see the trotting out of sexism "is the worst of the -isms." As if that is a competition we really need to have.