everyday sexism

Hillary Clinton Talks About How to Balance All That ‘Smile More’ Criticism With Being ‘Badass Hillary’

Hillary Clinton on The Tonight Show. Photo: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus have both recently come under fire for telling Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, to smile more. But they’re just the latest in a long line of men who’ve criticized Clinton for looking grim or sounding “shrill.”

At this point Clinton is used to the criticisms, but during an appearance on The Tonight Show Monday, she told Jimmy Fallon that they make campaigning as a woman especially difficult. “You have to meet everybody and be happy, but also people kind of want to see … the badass Hillary,” Fallon said. “Is that a tricky balance to do?”

“It’s especially tricky for women,” Clinton replied. She went on:

The other night I was on a show and being asked about ISIS and Iran and I was serious — these are important issues that the country needs to talk about. And the Republicans were saying, ‘Oh she looks so serious.’ Well, you don’t talk about ISIS with a big grin on your face.

Luckily Clinton has been doing this long enough that she knows how to respond to this sort of thing.

Clinton Calls Campaigning ‘Especially Tricky for Women’