Feminist and Feeling the Bern 

I am a progressive feminist, I am voting for Bernie Sanders, and I’m not the only one. Let’s begin with dispelling an important misconception, feminists are not a unified force on all issues. Feminism isn’t a cult or secret society, women don’t get initiated and then promise to always choose the lady over the fella if they’re duking it out. Hillary Clinton does not have my vote, even if Madeleine Albright is tapped into some psychic cosmic force and it turns out to be true that women who don’t help other women have their own suite near Satan, I’m still choosing Sanders over Clinton.

My feminism is intersectional and nuanced. I am not in a war of the sexes, I am in a fight for common decency and the breakdown of structural inequality and institutionalized oppression. The narrative that Hillary Clinton winning the presidency would change the world for women is a fairy tale. One woman POTUS does not gender equality make. Americans emphasize the importance of the individual while rejecting critical thought on what individual autonomy means and how much weight it should hold in politics.

Clinton is the mainstream white woman liberal heroine, but she does not represent me. Believing Clinton becoming president is going to dramatically reduce problems with gender inequality is like believing in trickle down Reagan economics. She may be at the top, but what about everyone at the bottom? The only candidate that is focusing on the American people and not on their personal ego is Bernie Sanders.

I am tired of the national mythology that Clinton will “obviously” win. Only 37% of the Democratic delegates were accounted for as of March 16, 2016. The difference between Clinton and Sanders was being talked about as if the lead Clinton had was overwhelming. As of April 20, 2016, Clinton is 60.7% of the way to the nomination while Bernie is 50.6% of the way, and that doesn’t count superdelegates. Only 54% of delegates have been determined. There are major states that have yet to make their move. The game is still playing out.

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