Hillary Clinton supporters are out in force, cautioning reporters on what words not to use in order to avoid “coded sexism,” according to New York Times reporter Amy Chozick.
On Wednesday, she wrote that she was approached by a group called HRC “super volunteers,” who told her certain words should be off limits.
A group called HRC Super Volunteers just warned me “We will be watching, reading, listening and protesting coded sexism…” (1/2)
— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) March 25, 2015
2/2 Sexist words, they say, include “polarizing, calculating, disingenuous, insincere, ambitious, inevitable, entitled, over confident…” — Amy Chozick (@amychozick) March 25, 2015
Also sexist, according to HRC Super Volunteers: “Secretive” and “will do anything to win, represents the past, out of touch…”
— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) March 25, 2015
“You are on notice that we will be watching, reading, listening and protesting coded sexism…” the email reads. — Amy Chozick (@amychozick) March 25, 2015
If and when Clinton announces her candidacy, gender politics will surely come into play at some point in the long presidential campaign.
During her 2008 run for the White House, she called her mission to “to break the highest and hardest glass ceiling,” and during her concession speech bowing out of the race, she proudly boasted about taking 18 million cracks at doing just that (the amount of votes she secured).
To date, there is just one declared candidate: Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who announced Monday. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is rumored to be announcing his bid in early April. Clinton was also rumored to be announcing in April, but then an email controversy hit regarding her use of personal emails as Secretary of State.
At a journalism awards ceremony Monday, Clinton joked about her relationship with the press:
“My relationship with the press has been at times, shall we say, complicated,” she joked. “No more secrecy, no more zone of privacy — after all what good did that do me,” she said to laughter.