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The Tnr Primary: Erica Jong

In the newest issue of the magazine, fourteen eggheads and eminences wrote short essays announcing whom they'd be voting for and why. We'll be unveiling these responses on The Plank throughout the next two weeks. This is what Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying, had to say:

Women are always in the wrong--particularly in politics. Our culture is sexist, and we don't even see it. Gloria Steinem said, "We'll do anything not to elect a woman." Women are attacked whenever we go public. Think of Eleanor Roosevelt, Bella Abzug--and Hillary Clinton. So Clinton has run a gauntlet. All her life. From Wellesley student to Yale student to lawyer to governor's wife to First Lady to senator to presidential candidate. I get it. I've run that gauntlet on a much smaller scale--and I don't even want to live in the White House.

My heart goes out to her. I admire her tenacity, her grit, and her courage. I do not find her an automaton. I find her real. True, I hated her voting for the Iraq war resolution and voting for that creepy Iran resolution. But maybe she was trying to be a politician. Anyway, if she had a penis, nobody would have cared.

Related: The complete "TNR Primary."