"Rode Hard and Put Away Dirty:" Portrait of a Hillary Feminist?

[alcibiades_mystery]

I was checking out the convo over in GD - that bastion of civility - when I noticed (as I am wont to do) a post proclaiming to show us, with a blurry face, an image of the prostitute that Eliot Spitzer purportedly paid $4300 to cavort with. Naturally, I clicked on it immediately. I did see one post in that thread that disturbed me utterly. It went like this:

"Looks like she's been rode hard and put away dirty - no class at all."

Hmm, I thought. That's a pretty despicable think to say, now, init? Sure that I'd run across some of that misogyny that the Hillary supporters are always complaining about, I decided to do a DU search for that particular poster. Needless to say, I found that HE was an Obama supporter, maybe a young sexist thug. Clearly, a misogynist, yes?

Well, not really. here are some other winner posts by the same person - a woman, mind you - who said "Looks like she's been rode hard and put away dirty":

From a thread about how easy it is "to humiliate women in the press":

"Yet Hillary, a physically unprepossessing lady on the far side of middle age" :obnoxious, ageist and sexist quote from R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr, a right winger, in some fercoctah article he wrote recently.

What do her looks or her age have to do with anything?

AND

We just want her treated as the other candidates have been treated in that they analyze their record, their history, biographical information, etc. - NOT snarky comments on their age and/or appearance. (emphasis mine)

AND

Very good observations. I'm amazed by the sexism and ageism that is rampant in our "modern" world.


-----------------

Amazed. Yes, me too....

[TheWraith]

1. Clinton shills are actually hypocrites? I'm shocked to discover there is GAMBLING in this election!

Really, no secret to anyone who's been watching DU.

I saw that same comment in that thread. I thought about saying something about how tasteless and rude it was, but I had to deal with something else and forgot about it.

[TheWraith]

2. Forgot to add...

It extends beyond just the Clinton campaign double-standard. There's a lot of self-described "feminists" here who for all their cry havoc over perceived sexism and "patriarchy" are vicious towards any women who don't meet their standards for what a woman should be. That thread's a perfect example: they don't know anything about that woman, or what kind of individual she is, yet some people are inevitably going to bash her for being a prostitute, or about how her job is degrading to women. Never mind that the girl probably makes more in a day than most people do in a month, or that it's clearly something she chose to do, or the fact that as liberals we're supposed to be the champions of choice and the idea that the government doesn't get to regulate a person's behavior.

Of course it's not just women, there are plenty of men here who do this too. But it's particularly noticeable among a certain segment of self-described "feminists."

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. I don't think liberalism is about choice: it's about the public good

Reducing liberalism to "defending choice" is a pretty dubious sort of operation.

[anigbrowl]

19. I sincerely hope not...because nobody knows what the public good is

and there are almost as many opinions as there members of the public. I feel liberalism is very much about choice, and maximising it for people. This is why I support public education and healthcare - because education opens up a wider range of choices, and because healthcare addresses the fact that you don't have much choice over when/how you get sick or injured in many cases, and few people have the education to make pragmatic choices about their own healthcare (as in, knowing what medicine to take etc.).

[alcibiades_mystery]

38. Liberalism believes that we can determine in common what the public good is

Akll this business about individual choice and the like is nice and all, but is not in line with classical liberalism.

[rodeodance]

4. it is tasteless and rude!!

[rodeodance]

5. Please explain your "Clinton shills are actually hypocrites? "

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. The poster in question is a Hillary supporter

who has complained about "sexism and ageism" on these boards numerous times.

She them turns around and notes that a woman "looks like she's been rode hard and put away dirty."

That qualifies as hypocrisy in my book, for sure.

[rodeodance]

9. The OP was being critical of that and other comments.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Er...I am the OP

Yes, I was being critical of a Hillary supporter saying, on the one hand, "Look at all the ageism and sexism," and, on the other, "Looks like she's been rode hard and put away dirty." A Hillary supporter who complained often about sexism said that. Grok that.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. Said individual has been on my Ignore List for weeks...

Thanks for confirming my selection.

[Political Heretic]

22. Then how did you reply?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

28. I didn't say this OP's author, now did I?

I was referring to the poster discussed in the OP... :sigh:

[Political Heretic]

33. oops, sorry for the misnderstanding

...long day. :)

[HCE SuiGeneris]

35. My bad as well... I am pretty damn pissy today.

:hi:

[Withywindle]

7. Well, of course.

It's a dirty little secret among women that very often "sisterhood" only applies to SOME women. Good women. Women like "us."

Look at your average high-school female-bullying session. Who's most vicious about girls who get labelled "sluts" and judges them the most harshly? (Hint: it's not usually boys.)

One wonders just how much sex a woman is allowed to have before her individuality and humanity become irrelevant in the eyes of OTHER WOMEN, and she becomes either an object of hellfire and damnation for the fundies and a figure of pity too damaged to make her own choices in the eyes of reformers.

[rodeodance]

10. I do not think it is a secret ----seems to unknow to some though!

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Oh, I'm perfectly familiar with the dynamic

It's still worthwhile pointing out when such a vicious dynamic is at play though, don't you think?

[Withywindle]

13. Absolutely.

And the example you found is textbook. Good work! :thumbsup:

[rodeodance]

17. yes, ---sorry---i was thinking of the first few posts. best.

[redqueen]

15. Very well put. (nt)

[mrreowwr_kittty]

27. Yes!

"One wonders just how much sex a woman is allowed to have before her individuality and humanity become irrelevant in the eyes of OTHER WOMEN, and she becomes either an object of hellfire and damnation for the fundies and a figure of pity too damaged to make her own choices in the eyes of reformers."

I actually came up with a Calculus for Sluthood. It was based on my experience in male-dominated industries, but I think it would apply to high school as well. It goes like this:

Woman sleeps with one coworker - Okay, if and only if, she goes on to marry or have an exclusive relationship with him. Otherwise, she is not properly owned by a male, hence a slut.

Woman sleeps with two coworkers - Clearly not the property of one male, hence a slut. Who has slept with "half the guys here".

Woman sleeps with more than 2 coworkers - Unwillingness to submit herself to the dominance of one male off the charts at this point. Definitely a slut and will henceforth be described as having slept with "every guy in this place".

[Withywindle]

30. AHAHAH, the ring of truth!

I think when men call a woman a slut, they usually mean one of two things:

"I know she's not owned by a man and yet she's slept with other men BUT NOT ME. Who does she think she is?"

or

"She slept with lots of men INCLUDING ME and I know deep down in my heart I'm a total waste of skin, so something must be wrong with HER."


When women say it, they sometimes say they're condemning her for treating sex as a commodity. But they're really threatened by the idea of a woman who either doesn't use sex as a commodity but just enjoys it for its own no-strings-attached sake or does use it as a commodity openly and honestly, i.e., gets paid straightforwardly in cash, instead of using it to barter for "love," social status, and lifelong financial support.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

34. Yep. I see a similar dynamic with eating

The only thing possibly as threatening as a "slut" is a woman who enjoys food. How dare she? It's your womanly duty to deny yourself, agonize over every calorie, and apologize profusely for succumbing to something "fattening". "I know I shouldn't have this cupcake, but I'll be good and go to spinning class tomorrow!"

[redqueen]

14. Jesus...

*sigh*

[leftynyc]

16. I don't get it

You're comparing a United States Senator to a whore?

[Political Heretic]

20. umm.... lol.... but that would be a horse...

...not a whore.

However your interpretation makes my post below funnier.

[izzybeans]

21. Umm the OP is suggesting that a self-proclaimed feminist

threw a woman under the bus for being a prostitute. Not Clinton, but a DUer who happens to support her. Not sure what the significance of who the person supports is, but it is, what it is I guess.

[Recursion]

26. Actually to a saddle, tack, and bridle

It's a horse-riding expression. If you ride hard and just hang up your leather accoutrements without cleaning them and drying them off, you ruin them.

[alcibiades_mystery]

37. Actually, I didn't "compare a US senator" to anything at all

I did imply that one of her supporters is a disgusting hypocrite, however.

[alcibiades_mystery]

36. Worst reading of the day!

Congratulations!

[Political Heretic]

18. Rode hard, put away wet - is how I've always heard the expression

[anigbrowl]

23. Sounds like someone who thinks sex is nasty

No accounting for individual hangups.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

24. I call them the Feminists For Hillary But Other Women Are Garbage brigade

I've noticed it too. One of the worst ones is a woman who posted OP after OP about what a dirty whore the Duke rape case accuser was. She's now Hillary's number one feminist fan, constantly defending the honor of her Queen. I normally post quite a bit about sexism and misogyny but I've dialed it back a bit as I watch many DUers have a sudden feminist "conversion". It'll be interesting to see how many of them revert back to being the good little full-time patriarchy enablers they are.

[Recursion]

25. It's a horse-riding expression, about tack and saddle

Though I've always assumed some of the double entendre was intended (incidentally, I've mostly heard it as "rode hard and put away wet", which is a bad thing to do to leather).

The sense is of someone using a tool and then not caring for its continued survival. Something like "throwing under the bus".

[bunnies]

29. Yep.

"put away wet" is the way I know it as well. But Ive only heard it used to describe an unsavory female.

[Recursion]

31. I've heard it about men, plenty, particularly myself

"Damn, Dmesg, you look like you've been rode hard and put away wet."

[bunnies]

32. lol. Youre right. I've definitely heard it used with men too.

I should have said I mostly hear it used re: women. You're correct.