Writers like drawing comparisons between Hillary Clinton and myriad figures. Some see her as a warrior, others a lizard person. One writer towards the end of the presidential campaign argued that Hillary was even like God Himself.
Over at Literary Hub, writer Emily Holleman continues this bizarre tradition in her piece “Is Hillary Clinton a Modern-Day Cleopatra? Or, How We Systematically Tear Down Our Female Leaders.”
“[Hillary Clinton] and her so-called “identity politics” have been so quickly blamed for Trump’s ascent. Watching the narrative emerge around Hillary’s collapse, I found myself thinking of another female politician whose image was torn down by her opponents: Cleopatra,” writes Holleman.
Who knew ancient Egypt had identity politics! Maybe Alexander the Great was transgender.
Holleman admits the comparison “feels counterintuitive,” but that Clinton, like Cleopatra, could have easily become a beauty icon. I don’t know how much bath salts Holleman huffed before writing this piece, but it must have been some pretty good stuff.
The case for the comparison gets modestly stronger when Holleman describes how the two “rose to prominence as appendages of more famous men.” Hillary had her Bill and Cleopatra had her Julius Caesar.
Both women gained a bad reputation simply because of their gender, Holleman argues. The message is clear: “A woman in proximity to power must be an evil manipulator or else a martyr at the altar of male ambition.” Unfortunately for Hillary, her bad reputation isn’t because she’s a woman, it’s because she’s a manipulator whose thirst for power couldn’t be more transparently obvious. If that makes me sexist, so are the majority of white women who chose Donald Trump over Clinton.
The essay ends by asking readers to forgive Clinton, simply because it’s just not fair for us to demand perfection from her.
Maybe if Clinton one day leads a naval fleet against Augustus Caesar, I’ll overlook some of her shortcomings. Until then, Clinton is less of a Cleopatra and more of a, well, Hillary Clinton.
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