Some commentators love to nitpick Hillary Clinton’s tone and appearance on the campaign trail, whether it’s telling her to “smile” more or to stop “shouting.“
Jimmy Kimmel “mansplaining” to Hillary Clinton was a perfect sendup of campaign trail sexism
And other commentators point out that these kinds of remarks are sexist — a man would probably never get the same comments, and Clinton seems to be held to a double standard in which even if she tried to follow critics’ advice, they’d find something else to nitpick.
Jimmy Kimmel brilliantly parodied this idea Thursday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where Hillary Clinton was a guest star, by “mansplaining” to her how to do her stump speech better.
He even mansplained the term “mansplaining.”
“That’s when a man explains something to a woman in a patronizing way?” Clinton said when Kimmel asked if she’d heard of the term.
“Actually it’s when a man explains something to a woman in a condescending way,” Kimmel replied.
Then Kimmel had Clinton start giving her usual stump speech so he could critique her. She only got a sentence in before Kimmel stopped her.
“You’re shouting, you’re too loud,” Kimmel said. “It comes off as a little shrill.”
Clinton continued more quietly.
“You know what, you have to speak up, because we can’t hear you,” Kimmel said.
Then he suggested that she smile. But when she did: “Don’t smile like that, it’s too forced; it looks like you’re faking it.”
“You know, Jimmy, your comments are kind of contradictory,” Clinton said after some more of this. “It’s like nothing I do is right.”
“Exactly, you’re not doing it right,” Kimmel said. “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something is not — you’re not—”
“A man?” Clinton said.
Pretty much.
