The Glass Ceiling

The nation's highest glass ceiling didn't shatter on November 8th. Many of us hoped it would. Many of us waited with bated breath, ready to hear the sound of millions of tiny glass shards crashing down, ready to bask in the sight of a limitless blue sky stretching up above, ready to live in a world where a woman can be President of the United States.

It looks like we have some more waiting to do. And in the meantime, many people, especially men, have been quick to blame Hillary Clinton’s defeat on the fact that she was a “weak candidate.” But what they fail to understand is that in a world so misogynistic, for a woman to even come close to shattering the glass ceiling is a superhuman feat of resilience and strength, and a testament to Hillary Clinton's unstoppable willpower in the face of male dominance.

It’s not just Hillary Clinton: Many women who dare to exist in the public sphere are deemed transgressive and punished accordingly. When Leslie Jones dared to speak up against the criticism of the “Ghostbusters” reboot, she was verbally assaulted with racist and sexist slurs by Milo Yiannopoulous and the alt-right community, which then went on to leak her private documents and nude photographs. When Anita Sarkeesian dared to talk about the sexist portrayal of women in video games, she was attacked by Gamergate, a loosely organized movement of anonymous Internet harassers, who promised to shoot anyone that showed up to Sarkeesian’s talk at Utah State University and who threatened to “come to your house and violently rape you in front of your family.” When Jessica Valenti dared to write about feminism, she received rape and death threats directed at her 5-year old daughter.

And just in case you think these are empty threats or that feminists are getting “triggered” for no reason, you might remember the story of Jyoti Singh, who was riding a bus in Delhi with her male friend when she was viciously attacked by six men, beaten, gang-raped, and violently assaulted with a rusty iron rod causing her to die two weeks later from internal damage—all because “a decent girl won’t roam around after 9 o’clock at night.” You might remember the story of Qandeel Baloch, a social media celebrity who embraced her sexuality and talked about the role of women in society, recently strangled to death by her own brother because “girls are born to stay home.”

This is all caused by fragile masculinity, by men who have been raised to conform to a construction of manhood that emphasizes dominance and aggression. It is fragile masculinity that tells men that the only way they can be a man is by being aggressive, stoic, and competitive. It is fragile masculinity that instills in men a crushing fear of being seen as “gay” or “girly,” and drives them to reassert their dominance by lashing out in misogynistic and homophobic violence.

But masculinity is a fragile thing. So fragile that, no doubt, even this simple statement will be threatening—dare I say, “triggering”—to many male readers. So fragile that bath bombs marketed for men need to be shaped like grenades, rose gold iPhones are considered strictly off-limits unless they call it “bro's gold,” male body spray comes in fragrances like “really ripped abs,” shower loofahs need to be specifically labeled “men’s mesh sponge,” and even chocolate needs to be aggressively labeled “Man Chocolate,” lest the men purchasing any of these items run the risk of being called “gay” or “girly.” So fragile that the mere prospect of Hillary Clinton becoming President of the United States was able to galvanize the alt-right movement to spew vitriol against her and motivate so many male voters to vote against her.

For Clinton was a woman who not only dared to exist in the public sphere, but dared to run for and occupy a position of power in a world that has been male-dominated. And for those transgressions, she has been punished, over and over again. From when she ran for president in high school to when she applied to law school and throughout her career in public service, she has been subjected to a relentless stream of sexist attacks and unfair double standards. As Anthony Williams, creator of the #MasculinitySoFragile hashtag, pointed out: “When you challenge masculinity, it hits a nerve.” And as a powerful female politician, Hillary Clinton’s mere existence shakes masculinity to its very core.

Donald Trump's victory, therefore, was nothing more than a desperate attempt by scared heterosexual, cisgender white men, fearful and resentful as they watched the hegemony they have enjoyed for decades slowly crumble away, because once upon a time the whole world was their safe space and the whole world was their “locker room.” Now that marginalized communities like women, people of color, the BGLTQ community, and undocumented immigrants are asserting their rights and creating their own safe spaces and even running for President, they are terrified because “when you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression”—and so, they lashed out by electing an openly racist and misogynistic, heterosexual, cisgender white man who has drawn praise from the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and white nationalist groups.

Because even they know that the glass ceiling cannot withstand many more blows, and that when it finally gives way, their fragile constructions of masculinity will be shattering as well. And even now they can hear the slow but relentless trickle as splinters of glass come steadily raining down on them, reminding them that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Nian Hu, ’18 is a government concentrator living in Mather House. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.