Whether Senator Hillary Clinton will somehow pull a rabbit out of a hat and win the Democratic nomination for president -- however unlikely that may be according to the political pundits -- writer Susan Faludi says that Clinton’s candidacy has succeeded in transforming the way that male voters perceive female politicians, moving beyond the stereotype of a no-fun, school marm-ish rules-enforcer to the tough-as-nails working class gal who’ll down a beer and a shot in a bar and mix it up with the best of ‘em.

 

Writing in the New York Times, Faludi said: “For virtually all of American political history, the strong female contestant has been cast not as the player but the rules keeper, the purse-lipped killjoy who passes strait-laced judgment on feral boy fun.”

 

“. . . In the final stretch of the primary season, [

Clinton
] seems to have stepped across an unstated gender divide, transforming herself from referee to contender,” Faludi wrote. Referencing the film “Thelma & Louise,” she said: “What’s more, [

Clinton
] seems to have taken to her new role with a Thelma-like relish. We are witnessing a female competitor delighting in the undomesticated fray. Her new no-holds-barred pugnacity and gleeful perseverance have revamped her image in the eyes of begrudging white male voters, who previously saw her as the sanctioning ‘sivilizer,’ a political Aunt Polly whose goody-goody directives made them want to head for the hills.” (May 2008)