It is impossible to adequately address why some male and female HRC supporters do not want to support Obama if he becomes the nominee without addressing the hate speech his campaign inspired and has done almost nothing to stop.
A few examples of hate speech:
http://www.youtube.com/...
It is ludicrous to assume that the Obama supporters can viciously attack women and girls for months, vicously attack our gender, and then assume that we will be happy to support Obama. That's not logical and although both sides have some supporters who are prejudiced, the direction of prejudice apparently is almost entirely one way:from the Obama supporters towards the HRC supporters.
Obama must address the extreme hate against women his campaign has fueled, he must apologize for the abuse his supporters inflicted on women and girls, and he must take concrete actions to stop the hate speech in order to even begin to heal the wounds his supporters have inflicted on people who happen to be born female.
Examples of Sexism Against We Who Are Born Female:
http://nymag.com/...
Hillary Clinton and the fourth wave.
By Amanda Fortini Published Apr 13, 2008
The egregious and by now familiar potshots are too numerous (and tiresome) to recount. A greatest-hits selection provides a measure of the misogyny: There's Republican axman Roger Stone's anti-Hillary 527 organization, Citizens United Not Timid, or CUNT. And the Facebook group Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich, which has 44,000-plus members. And the "Hillary Nutcracker" with its "stainless-steel thighs." And Clinton's Wikipedia page, which, according to The New Republic, is regularly vandalized with bathroom-stall slurs like "slut" and "cuntbag." And the truly horrible YouTube video of a KFC bucket that reads HILLARY MEAL DEAL: 2 FAT THIGHS, 2 SMALL BREASTS, AND A BUNCH OF LEFT WINGS. And Rush Limbaugh worrying whether the country is ready to watch a woman age in the White House (as though nearly every male politician has not emerged portly, wearied, and a grandfatherly shade of gray).
...
The frat boys at MSNBC portrayed Clinton as a castrating scold, with Tucker Carlson commenting, "Every time I hear Hillary Clinton speak, I involuntarily cross my legs," and Chris Matthews calling her male endorsers "castratos in the eunuch chorus." Matthews also dubbed Clinton "the grieving widow of absurdity," saying, of her presidential candidacy and senatorial seat, "She didn't win there on her merit. She won because everybody felt, `My God, this woman stood up under humiliation.' " While that may be partly true--Hillary's approval ratings soared in the wake of l'affaire Lewinsky--Matthews's take reduced her universally recognized political successes to rewards for public sympathy, as though Clinton's intelligence and long record of public service count for nothing.
...
A woman I interviewed described the atmosphere of Obama-Fascism in her office: "I really object to the assumption that everyone is voting for Obama in our cohort, but that's the assumption these guys talk under," she says. "They feel only idiots would vote for Hillary. There's this kind of total assumption that of course any thinking person is voting for Obama."
http://www.dispatch.com/...
Clinton's supporters decry sexism in campaign
Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:52 PM
BY CATHERINE CANDISKY
The Columbus Dispatch
"Our party has been witness to the most outrageous display of misogyny and sexism in modern campaign history," said Cynthia Ruccia, a former congressional candidate from Columbus and Clinton supporter.
"To be told at this point to sit down, be quiet, get with the program and take a back seat to an opponent with a clearly weaker resume because the party thinks it can take our loyalty for granted is a supreme insult," Ruccia said.
http://thehill.com/...
McAuliffe says media `in the tank' for Obama
By Klaus Marre
Posted: 05/13/08 11:43 AM [ET]
Terry McAuliffe, campaign chairman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
McAuliffe added that "every independent study has said that this is the most biased coverage they've ever seen in a presidential campaign."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
May 13, 2008
Clinton Campaign Brought Sexism Out of Hiding
By Marie Cocco
...T-shirts that bear the slogan "Bros before Hos." The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and they are widely sold on the Internet.
...the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless steel thighs that, well, bust nuts...television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item.
...radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a "big f---in' whore" and said the same about former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. Rhodes was appearing at an event sponsored by a San Francisco radio station, before an audience of appreciative Obama supporters -- one of whom had promoted the evening on Obama's official campaign Web site.
... jokes like this one, told last week by magician Penn Jillette on MSNBC: "Obama did great in February, and that's because that was Black History Month. And now Hillary's doing much better 'cause it's White B---- Month, right?"
...comments that liken Clinton to a "she-devil" (Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who helpfully supplied an on-screen mockup of Clinton sprouting horns). Or those who offer that she's "looking like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court" (Mike Barnicle, also on MSNBC)..."White women are a problem, that's -- you know, we all live with that" (William Kristol of Fox News).
...the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven't uttered a word of public outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
http://docs.google.com/...
April 13, 2008
SEXISM IN THE CAMPAIGN Oregon leaders decry bias undermining Clinton
BETTY ROBERTS, JANE CEASE and REP. SARA GELSER
...Jay Leno last year --even before the primaries --joked that "over 18 million American men currently suffer from erectile dysfunction. Doctors say that number could double if Hillary gets elected."
At a recent Portland City Club speech, an Oregon senator referred to her as "Mrs." Clinton and in the same breath to Obama as "Senator" Obama, to the dismay of the women in the audience.
The Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., issued a report in February analyzing the content of 765 news stories that clearly confirmed media bias in the presidential contest. The center reported that Clinton has gotten the worst press treatment of all the major candidates, with Obama receiving 83 percent positive comments to Clinton's 47 percent.
http://www.salon.com/...
Hey, Obama boys: Back off already!
By Rebecca Traister
Apr. 14, 2008
...I was getting e-mails from men I didn't know well who approached me as a go-to feminist to whom they could express their hatred of Hillary and their anger at her staying in the race -- an anger that seemed to build with every one of her victories.
Alex Seggerman, a 24-year-old art history Ph.D. student at Yale and an Obama voter, said, "I don't think anyone in my peer group, including my parents and my friends, would be comfortable saying, 'I'm not ready for a woman president.' They would be ostracized. Saying, 'She's had plastic surgery' or 'Her attitude is off-putting' are fine. But these are really expressions of some deeper issues with the fact that she's a woman."
Jessica Valenti, the founder of Web site Feministing, has spent recent weeks touring colleges...
"... if I say something that's pro-Obama," she said, "someone will feel it's OK to say something to me that's anti-Hillary...The same thing happens if I say something that's pro-Hillary; someone will launch into an anti-Hillary diatribe that doesn't have anything to do with her as a politician."
Ashley Johnson, 21, is a senior at Princeton who is undecided but leaning toward Obama. She told of a male acquaintance who questioned whether her hypothetical vote for Clinton would be "just because you are a woman and you want a woman in the White House." Said Johnson, "That doesn't give me enough credit and underestimates how much thought I've put into this."
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/...
"Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan “If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!” Shame."
http://www.womensmediacenter.com:80/...
On May 23, The Women's Media Center, along with our partners at Media Matters, launched, "Sexism Sells, But We're Not Buying It," a new video and online petition campaign illustrating the pervasive nature of sexism in the media's coverage. While Hillary Clinton's campaign has cast a spotlight on the issue of sexism, this isn't a partisan issue: it's about making sure that women's voices are present and powerful in our national dialogue. If you haven't already, please click on the image at right to watch the video. You can also read a statement about the video from WMC president Carol Jenkins. Then sign on below to join our petition campaign.