Right-wing Trump fans now attacking Hillary for … sitting on stools

I’m gonna lay out a pet peeve here: Why do we refer to Hillary Clinton by her first name? It’s rare for a famous man to be referred to by his first name on the regular, but not so rare for a famous woman.

This #HillarysStools thing is very silly, but it’s also gross, implying that anyone with a disability or health problem is unfit to serve as president.

Now, I get that people would want a president who’s likely to live at least four years more, since it’s a political hassle to replace a leader who dies in office, but this whole health/fitness obsession is a bit strange.

I’m definitely with you on this. I do think it’s important for the President to be in sufficiently good health for 8 years of a very stressful job. Have you looked at pictures of Obama today vs. 2008? Being president has aged him far beyond what 8 years normally should have. You can see it in every president, really, but it’s struck me particularly hard with Obama, maybe because he looked so young when elected.

But being disabled should not be a bar in itself. It is, politically, but it shouldn’t be, depending on the type of disability. A disability that impairs someone’s ability to do a high-stakes stressful job every day for 8 years = not Presidential material. There are a lot of things that disqualify someone from being President, not Constitutionally but in practical terms. A disability that required someone to sit down every couple of hours, which is what is being alleged here without evidence? No problem whatsoever, and it’s unclear to me what would be going through someone’s mind to think that standing up nonstop all day with no breaks is something Presidents have to be able to do.

@ Policy

I see that so much with famous women vs famous men. Women get referred to by their first name, while men are referred to by their last name.

Its about respect, it used to be considered rude and disrespectful to call people you didn’t know by their first name. We’ve generally kept this tradition for men, but use more casual language when referring to women.

Sinkable John said

I’m no doctor, but I believe this may have something to do with his head currently being stuck pretty far up his own ass.

35 years and STILL no cure? Please give generously to the Cranio-rectal Inversion Syndrome Society (CRISS) so that we may help the millions* who suffer from this horrific disease! /PSA

*and by this we mean, of course, the ones who have to deal with those so stricken >.<

JoeB and Alan – I guess there are loads of military jobs where most of what you do is babysit expensive equipment. I had one of those jobs; taught myself crochet and knitting, kept up correspondence with all my friends and relatives, played a lot of Spades and Hearts and a fair bit of Risk among other things. There was about three hours worth of work to do on a 12-hr. shift if we had no outages. But I had a locked room in a secure building to goof off in…

Alan – We weren’t allowed to wear anything that was non-issue except maybe socks (which I only learned to make relatively recently) so that book makes me totes jelly!

And lest anyone think my job was a complete waste of time, if there was an outage (or god forbid more than one) we were generally in panic mode for the duration due to the importance* of the comms we were responsible for.

*so much so that our building had its own backup power production plant with a 24/7/365 staff that had less to do on a non-outage shift than my shop.

Knitting is wonderful for babysitting-the-centrifuge types of jobs: check the the equipment at the end of x-many rows/rounds.

@Policy of Madness

Yes, it’s a bit aggravating, but Hillary Clinton has been assumed to be Of One Entity with Bill Clinton (see: her being blamed for her husband’s policies when he was president), and referring to her as just “Clinton” would probably muddy the waters even more.

It also happened with the Bushes, George W. Bush got referred to as “Dubya” and such. (Admittedly this is also not a very big show of respect, but I do wonder if he DIDN’T also have the first name of his father that he would have been referred to by his first name).

Of course, there are plenty of other cases of women being referred to by their first name when men are referred to by their last name, so sexism definitely plays a part in it too.

@ Policy of Madness

Well, there may be something to the first name thing being an expression of disrespect, whether consciously or not, but there is also the fact that we’ve had a Clinton in politics recently that’s still pretty famous and well-known. So for the same reason many people called the second President Bush Dubya and we have Teddy and FDR for the Roosevelts (only related through marriage, funny enough), there is probably some feeling that Hillary Clinton should be differentiated from the other Clinton. Calling her simply Hillary is probably the easiest way to do it. Of course, I tended to refer to both of the major Democratic candidates by their first names and the Republican candidates by their last, so for me it may be that I feel more warmly toward Bernie and Hillary that I do assholes like Cruz and Trump.

@Michael Brew

I tended to refer to both of the major Democratic candidates by their first names and the Republican candidates by their last, so for me it may be that I feel more warmly toward Bernie and Hillary that I do assholes like Cruz and Trump

That’s what I was thinking. Still, I don’t like that it’s still going on. Will they be calling her President Hillary come Inauguration Day?

Hilary’s Stools? Really?

They’re not even trying to be taken seriously any more.

The woman is in her 60s and LOOK AT HER SHOES. LOOK AT THOSE POINTY BASTARDS. I don’t think most people enjoy standing in heels for hours on end, let alone a woman who’s already done that for decades and decades.

For fuck’s sake, people.

The Parks department said in a statement that “NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.”

CTFU! ?

I’m gonna lay out a pet peeve here: Why do we refer to Hillary Clinton by her first name? It’s rare for a famous man to be referred to by his first name on the regular, but not so rare for a famous woman.

Personally, I call her by her first name to separate her from Bill (and I call him by his first name for the same reason). If I didn’t, some of my posts would read like Who’s On First skits. o_O It’s a very good point in general, but there is a legitimate reason for it in this case.

Well, if it helps, AP style says you generally refer to someone with her or his first name after the first mention if multiples with the same last name are mentioned in a story. So any story that mentions Bill (or any other Clinton) will have “Hillary” afterward–but it should also have “Bill” afterward if he’s mentioned more than once. (Which he might not be since he’s not the candidate and doesn’t necessarily warrant it.)

You can write around this sometimes but it risks becoming rather awkward or depending on knowledge a reader might not have (“the former president,” or “the 2016 Democratic candidate,” or “the former Sec. of State” or “the famous saxophonist” or “the pantsuit wearer” or whatever).

I suspect the reason people are mainly using her first name is that her husband is also famous, in politics and because he’s campaigning for her is also often mentioned in the same story.

Sarah Palin is usually “Palin” and Nancy Pelosi is usually “Pelosi” that I’ve seen. Conversely, Jeb Bush usually really is “Jeb,” because you can’t throw a rock without hitting a Bush in politics.

Of course this only applies to those using AP style, and definitely does not apply to any partison punditry “news.”