Hillary Clinton in the Garden of Eden

The role of gender and morality in the West stems from the passages of the Bible specifically The Book of Genesis. So it’s not too much of a stretch to equate the story of Eve to Mrs Hillary Clinton who is running for office. One can see many parallels between the two.

The story of Eve has has shaped many people’s perception of how a woman should act or be like. Eve is a representation of elements that man should guard against. Disobedient, guileless, weak-willed, prone to temptation and evil, disloyal, untrustworthy, deceitful, seductive, and their thoughts are purely of self interest. One can see how Hillary is also perceived this way by the way the media reports her.

No matter how much Hillary has achieved in the world and in her field, the story of Eve reminds people that she is still not to be trusted. Many Christian text warn men of the follies or the ignominy of the original sin and the fall of man brought by Eve.

This perception has haunted women in all fields in a male dominated world even till today. Hillary stood by her husband in the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal/affair. Many women could not relate to her and were not on her side. Many talk show hosted by women were very vocal and received thunderous applaud when the host made remarks about how she should leave him or “kick him to the curb” , and how standing by her man was not the right thing to do at the time under the circumstance. The story of Genesis not only warns men not to trust women but also women not to trust women.

“For I do not allow woman to teach, or to exercise authority over men; but she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” (1 Timothy 2:12-14)

Hillary is challenging the male dominated world of politics. Make no mistake about it, the world of politics is a very patriarchal.The media plays an important part in reaffirming what is already ingrained in our psyche. We the people are Adam and Hillary is Eve. She is going to prevail over us. She will tempt, beguile, lure, corrupt, persuade, teach, counsel, suggest, urge, use wicked persuasion, lead us into wrongdoing, prove herself an enemy, use guile and cozening, tears and lamentations, to prevail upon Adam (or us). The predominant male news talk show hosts,from Chris Matthews to Bill O’Reily use this tactic of creating an image of Eve in Hillary. They in turn use words like the ones above to describe Eve to describe Hillary. There is a clear bias between her and the other candidates in the way she is “reported”.