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When a woman, as Kate did here, talks about Hillary's femaleness as a potentially deciding factor in whether to support her, has nothing to do with "Vagina Voting." There's absolutely no reason to presume that an intelligent, rational, progressive woman who says she's leaning toward Hillary because she's a woman hasn't already taken into consideration all the political implications of that decision.


And if you are making that presumption—if you hear a woman you know to be politically astute saying, "I'm leaning toward Hillary now because she's a woman," and you say, "Well, choose her because she's got the best policies, not because she's got ovaries!"—you need to stop and ask yourself why you feel compelled to issue that caveat, despite its manifest insult to the intelligence of any woman at whom it is directed.


It's absolutely legitimate for Hillary's sex to be one's deciding factor, and no less legitimate than citing John Edwards being a millworker's son who knows what it's like to be working class as one's deciding factor. Though, strangely, no one accuses anyone of overlooking all his polities if they honor his background thusly.

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Basically, it's saying "I want to be represented by someone who shares the experiences of being female, because I feel that those experiences aren't taken seriously enough". No one can deny that Clinton is not familiar with what it is like to be on the receiving end of misogyny, and I think it's perfectly valid to include that experience as one of the things that contributes to your wanting to vote for her: it's no different to a veteran who wants to vote for someone because of their military experience.

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