This Is Why Hillary Clinton's Twitter Bio Kicks Off With the Word ‘Wife’
If you’ve ever come across Hillary Clinton‘s Twitter and wondered why her highly impressive list of roles included in her bio leads off with “wife,” you’re not alone. It does seem a strange that the former secretary of state and presidential candidate—who can boast decades of experience in politics, has gone up repeatedly against powerful men, and has been a longtime advocate for women in the workplace—starts off her bio with a role that defines her in domestic relation to a man. (“Wife, mom, grandma, women+kids advocate, FLOTUS, Senator, SecState, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate,” is how it currently reads.) Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had that thought, too—and asked Clinton about it during a PEN World Voices Festival lecture on Sunday night in New York City.
“In your Twitter account, the first word that describes you is ‘wife.’ And then I think it’s ‘mom,’ and then it’s ‘grandmother,'” Adichie said, reports Jezebel. “And when I saw that, I have to confess that I felt just a little bit upset. And then I went and I looked at your husband’s Twitter account, and the first word was not “husband.'”
Adichie then went on to ask why Clinton had chosen to “first identify in relation to her husband.”
“When you put it like that, I’m going to change it,” Clinton replied, according to Jezebel. According to the website, Clinton continued by responding that “women should be able to celebrate both their accomplishments and their relationships,” citing a lecture she heard by former First Lady Barbara Bush (timely) at Wellesley in the ’90s.
“She said, you know, at the end of the day, it won’t matter if you got a raise, it won’t matter if you wrote a great book, if you are not also someone who values relationships,” Clinton explained.
“It shouldn’t be either/or. It should be that if you are someone who is defining yourself by what you do and what you accomplish, and that is satisfying, then more power to you,” she continued. “That is how you should be thinking about your life, and living it. If you are someone who primarily defines your life in relationship to others, then more power to you, and live that life the way Barbara Bush lived that life, and how proud she was to do it. But I think most of us as women in today’s world end up in the middle. Wanting to have relationships, wanting to invest in them, nurture them, but also pursuing our own interests.”
Clinton then went on to praise Senator Tammy Duckworth, who last week made history by casting a vote with her newborn accompanying her.
“I think that summed it all up,” Clinton said. “She’s a mom, she’s a senator, she’s a combat veteran. She is somebody who is trying to integrate all of the various aspects of her life. And that’s what I’ve tried to do for a very long time, and it’s not easy.”
Anyway, it seems like Clinton’s down for a revamp. Adiche, for her part, had an idea of what Clinton’s newly rewritten bio could read: “It could say, ‘Should have been a damn good president.'”
As of Monday morning, Clinton’s team hadn’t yet gotten on the bio update. We’re looking forward to seeing how the new one reads—because although, yes, Clinton is a wife, she has also made history defining herself in her own right.
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