If you happened to miss it, the new wave of Hillary Clinton praise is based on her "testicular fortitude." So the woman who has come closest in American history to become president is an honorary man because she supposedly has gumption, strength or something of that nature.
I'll briefly take my womanist stance and say that notion is a bit sexist.
Since when did womanhood become an antonym of strength and courage? And why is it a compliment to honor a woman by awarding her with manly body parts?
When Sen. Clinton comes to mind, I can think of a number of adjectives to describe her — none of which have a thing to do with anatomy.
Typically, when one person in a two-person race is being praised for having something, it's implied that the opponent lacks that — virtue. So while people were praising Clinton on her extraordinary traits, they — in turn — questioned Obama's manhood.
Clinton advisor and CNN correspondent James Carville was very clear about questioning Obama's "completeness" by saying of Clinton, "If she gave him one of her cojones, they'd both have two."
In all honesty, Barack Obama can't afford to ooze of machismo. He can't be all that audacious. He can be but only so acidic with his words. Why, you ask?
Research Emmett Till.
And while verbally castrating someone is nowhere near as damaging as physically doing the deed, it all stems from the same place. No tread is light enough and no kid gloves are soft enough to remove the elephant from the room.
It's there. It'll be there. We may be able to walk around it, but it's staring at us begging for attention. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright briefly placed the spotlight on it, but people were quickly able to move the elephant to another corner.
I am positive the elephant will hit center stage, wearing a tutu and second lining by the time the general election rolls around.
Such irony in the fact that Sen. Clinton wanted to show us that you don't need testicles to become president of the United States and her "gonad-less" opponent may prove her right after all — because at the end of the day, Clinton may have the "conjones" but Obama is the one with the votes.
