Hillary Clinton On Humans Of New York, Talks About Sexism In Interview

Democratic nominee for president and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday shed light on the sexism she has faced in her political journey in an interview with Brandon Stanton’s popular social media handle – Humans of New York (HONY).

The website featured two posts where Clinton shared her experiences – one from earlier in her life, and another dealing with more recent comparisons to husband Bill Clinton and fellow democrat U.S. President Barack Obama.

“I’m not Barack Obama. I’m not Bill Clinton,” said Clinton as she went on to talk about the ease of manner that the two leaders possessed.

“Both of them carry themselves with a naturalness that is very appealing to audiences. But I’m married to one and I’ve worked for the other, so I know how hard they work at being natural. It’s not something they just dial in,” Clinton said.

Being a woman, however, makes it tough for her to be accepted the same way, she explained.

“I’ll go to these events and there will be men speaking before me, and they’ll be pounding the message, and screaming about how we need to win the election. And people will love it. And I want to do the same thing,” Clinton was quoted saying. “But I’ve learned that I can’t be quite so passionate in my presentation. I love to wave my arms, but apparently that’s a little bit scary to people. And I can’t yell too much. It comes across as ‘too loud’ or ‘too shrill’ or ‘too this’ or ‘too that.’”

The Democrat also addressed allegations of her being perceived as “cold” and “unemotional” in another post on the HONY website where she talked about the time when she was taking a law admission test at Harvard University. Being one of the only women in the room, Clinton had to face numerous comments from men, which could be taken as discouraging.

“But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that’s a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don’t want to seem ‘walled off.’ And sometimes I think I come across more in the ‘walled off’ arena. And if I create that perception, then I take responsibility,” Clinton told HONY.

In March this year, Stanton wrote an open letter to Republican nominee and Clinton’s rival Donald Trump where the journalist condemned the businessman’s hateful rhetoric, especially regarding Muslims and refugees.

“I try my hardest not to be political,” Stanton wrote in the letter that was posted on the HONY Facebook page and his own twitter handle. “I thought: ‘Maybe the timing is not right.’ But I realize now that there is no correct time to oppose violence and prejudice. The time is always now. Because along with millions of Americans, I’ve come to realize that opposing you is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one.”