Rebecca Traister: Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women

The author was recently invoked in The Opinion Pages of The New York Times:

Now, John Boehner is blaming the Dream for making him howl like an abandoned puppy. It’s what my friend Rebecca Traister calls “Boehner doing Masterpiece Theater on the hard life of John Boehner.” Traister is the author of “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” a chronicle of the Clinton-Obama battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. One of the best-remembered moments in that campaign — Hillary Clinton cries in New Hampshire — is an excellent example of the difference between what men and women can get away with, tear-wise. “Hillary didn’t cry,” Traister pointed out. “Not a drop of liquid fell below her lower lash.” With her back to the wall and the presidency on the line, Clinton approached the edge of a sniffle and we are still talking about it. Boehner is driven to great, noisy sobs when he contemplates the fact that as a youth, he mopped the floor at his father’s tavern.

You can read that op-ed here.

Gender Politics: Women and the Midterm Elections from WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Betsy Reed, executive editor of The Nation and co-editor of Going Rouge: Sarah Palin – An American Nightmare, and Rebecca Traister, senior writer for Salon and author of the new book Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women, talk about women and the midterm elections.

Listen to the show here, read from the show's web page here. See also: Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women