Read my latest story, "The All-Nighter", at 52|250.

Yesterday morning, my second class didn’t show up (which isn’t unusual for seniors here at Shengda, especially since, now that midterms are over, they’re allowed to leave the campus to start their job search), so I was able to return to my apartment nearly two hours early.  While it’s always pleasant to find oneself with extra time off, these good feelings soon evaporated when I made the mistake of turning on CNN for the tail end of the Democratic debate.  Things were thrown at the TV.  Fortunately, since I was still in the process of taking off my outer layers, most of these were soft things like my scarf, gloves, and hat.

Of course, I was watching the audience participation portion which included the repulsive “Diamonds or pearls?” question for Hillary Clinton.  Now, let’s leave aside for the moment the fact that this superficial question took up time that could have been used by candidates who have a real message but are continually marginalized in the mainstream media (even after winning a major national poll).  The fact is that Hillary Clinton’s answer exemplifies why I would never vote for her.  Saying that she wanted both not only supported a sort of gross materialism that frankly is at odds with what needs to change to solve the greatest challenges facing the world today (global warming, for instance) but also played into offensive stereotypes about women.  Repeatedly in her campaign, this woman has navigated the sometimes contradictory demands on women in power by acting out repulsive stereotypes while taking on some of the worst stereotypically masculine traits (hawkishness, for example).  This can only lead to bad policy, as Senator Clinton’s voting record (see her vote authorizing war in Iraq) shows.

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