What's really motivating our dislike and distrust of Hillary? President Obama has an idea.
On the stump in Ohio this week, President Obama directed a crucial part of his speech to men:
Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images.
In particular, he asked us to search our feelings about Hillary Clinton — and ask ourselves why they're often, in his view, disproportionately negative.
"You know, there's a reason why we haven't had a woman president before... I want every man out there who's voting to kind of look inside yourself and ask yourself: If you're having problems with this stuff, how much of it is, you know, that we're just not used to it. When a guy's ambitious and out in the public arena and working hard, well that's OK, but when a woman does it, suddenly you're all like, 'Well, why's she doing that?' I'm just being honest. I want you to think about it."
A sitting president asking half of the electorate to examine their own prejudices against a current presidential candidate is a pretty unprecedented move.
Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images.
Not only has a woman never led a major party ticket before, but asking men to search their souls about their unwilling, unconscious participation in structural discrimination against women in general is not something that, historically, has gone over particularly well with... you know, men.
Predictably, there was outrage, notably in the conservative press.
A Breitbart report on the speech claimed the president was "ridiculing" Trump supporters and suggesting that "men are sexist if they support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton."
Hot Air's Allahpundit found Obama's speech patronizing and mocked the president for "politely scolding them for their sexism towards poor, crooked Hillary."
There are, of course, valid reasons to dislike Hillary Clinton other than sexism.
You might be a conservative-minded person spooked by some of her left-of-center policy ideas. You might be irked by her close ties to Wall Street. Her 2002 vote for a pivotal Iraq War resolution might give you pause.
But implicit gender bias is a real thing, and the fact that it's unconscious is what makes it so hard to acknowledge and fight.
And science backs up the notion that it's a particular problem for women seeking positions of authority or applying for jobs in general.
A University of Texas study found that women applying for fellowships in geoscience were 50% less likely to receive "excellent" recommendations from their references, compared to their male peers.
A McKinsey/Lean In analysis found that women's share of the workforce declines at every subsequent level of management — while 46% of entry-level employees are women, only 19% of C-suite executives are. Women in the study reported feeling unfairly treated, and a majority felt promotions in their workplace were not awarded based on merit.
The notion that ambitious women are untrustworthy and unlikeable isn't just a Hillary Clinton thing either. Elizabeth Warren, frequently held up as the ideal "if only" candidate for left-leaning Democrats, was subject to many of the same attacks when she ran for senate in Massachusetts.
Now that a woman is applying for the most important job in the world, President Obama is right — we should at least ask ourselves the question and be honest with ourselves.
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.
Not to flagellate ourselves for being bad, sexist idiots, but to try to identify a small, unconscious piece that might make life subtly harder for the women in our lives — and in public life.
If it's not there, then great! But it can't hurt to try and know one way or the other — and to work on it if it is.
It doesn't mean you have to vote for Hillary. It just means ... think about stuff. You know?
Like, just think about it. A little.
The stakes are too high not to at least wonder.
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Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.