hill-arious

I am a catalogue junkie. I get tons of catalogues in the mail, especially now that the holiday shopping rush has arrived. I suppose I must be on a bunch of mailing lists, because sometimes I receive random catalogues that I’ve never even heard of, like this new one, http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com/, which is full of lots of funny "joke" gifts.

Gracing both the cover and the very last page was this gem:

(photo courtesy of http://www.hillarynutcracker.com/)

What on earth, indeed? Hillary the Nutcracker? When I first looked, I guess I looked a little too fast, because I didn't even realize what it was at first... I just thought it was some sort of doll. But then I read the disturbing description:

"The best part: Through the whole nutcracking process, her smile doesn't change a bit...Hillary the Thighmistress has rock-solid stainless steel thighs for getting the job done..."

Wtf? "getting the job done," Eww. Are you kidding me? Who is this product even supposed to be marketed to? Just the existence of this "nut-cracker" or "ball-buster" says millions about sexism in our society. How hilarious to think of a woman busting balls! It's just so typical that so many men feeling threatened by a strong woman must point at her strengths and file them right into the hard-ass-bitch stereotype. She can't just be strong and co-exist alongside men, she must have to bring them down to her sub-man level of woman-ness first! Senator Clinton seems to just scream castration to so many men these days.

.

What would a male candidate's counterpart to this product even be? I'm not even going to get into the suggestiveness of a spread-eagled woman and the whole putting-nuts-between-her-thighs thing. What are you guys doing? Trying to make her more like the kind of woman you prefer? And the part about her expression never changing?

Gross. This just makes me sad.