good post, kuruman. (Oh, I think Randi Rhodes is a WOMAN).

I agree with both sides of this: I think "journalists" (even the dreaded TV/cable news journalists) should at least TRY for the friggin' higher ground; instead they've shown themselves to be as big buttheads as anyone else walking the street can be. And there is easy contempt for making a woman the brunt of mockery. HOWEVER: EVERYONE is susceptible to being made the brunt of mockery these days (well, except perhaps blacks--whites have to be a little careful mocking a group of people who until just recently whites used to LYNCH on a regular basis). In fact, the sort of mockery directed at Hillary implies ACCEPTANCE in a way--she's just as susceptible to being mocked as anyone else (PLEASE don't try to tell me that people don't have a tendency to want to mock anyone and everyone they can!).

There was a day when men would not even CONSIDER saying mocking a woman in public discourse (well, mostly--there's always a nasty habit of mocking people who are considered beneath others, and in fact in those days, women would NOT be mocked, but Blacks WOULD BE).

As women are now accepted as being "one of the boys," they become open to treatment like one of the boys. Men now feel FREE to cast derision on a WOMAN they feel deserves it just as well as they always felt free to cast it upon a MAN they felt deserves it.

Simply, I think it's a stretch to expand contempt and mockery of Hillary as contempt and mockery of women in general--and therefore, the contempt shown is NOT MISOGYNISTIC contempt.