It wasn't too long ago that you had to get all defensive about supporting Hillary Clinton. Now you have to defend yourself if you're not an unabashed Hil fangirl. What's her secret? We watched her joint "60 Minutes" interview with Barack Obama last night — the first time the president has shared an interview with anyone other than his wife — and took notes on how to succeed as a powerful woman working under an even more powerful man.
When events don't go as planned, don't be a sore loser.
Obama suggested the "60 Minutes" interview to commemorate Hillary's exit from the State Department, according to The Washington Post. He called her a friend and extraordinary talent and went on and on about "her discipline, her stamina, her thoughtfulness, her ability to project."
But the duo didn't always get along. (Remember a little thing called the 2008 primaries?) It must've been hard for Hillary to work under Obama after competing with him to be POTUS. But the two seemed to work seamlessly together, without any tension whatsoever, during his first term, a strategy that's clearly benefited her in the long run. The Washington Post notes that "the possibility of a presidential campaign for Vice President Joe Biden did not come up during the interview." Yet we dare you to find a recent Hillary interview in which she's not asked about her 2016 plans.
Resist pressure to change your appearance.
Women have to put up with a lot of sexist crap in male-dominated workplaces. So it's not that shocking that Hillary's own staff has shit-talked her hair (they wanted to "ban the scrunchies") and that she's been endlessly lambasted by the media and other asshole politicians for wearing pantsuits and going on camera without makeup. But instead of giving into pressure to look more "womanly," whatever that means, she's called out interviewers for pestering her about her favorite designers — "Would you ever ask a man that question?" she once retorted — and when she dared to allow herself to be photographed without looking what we've deemed camera-ready for a woman, she told CNN:
I feel so relieved to be at the stage I'm at in my life right now, because you know if I want to wear my glasses I'm wearing my glasses. If I want to wear my hair back I'm pulling my hair back. You know at some point it's just not something that deserves a lot of time and attention.
Michelle Obama always looks awesome in a badass ladylike way, and we're into that too. But there's something so inspiring about Hillary's "YES I AM WEARING A PANTSUIT BECAUSE IT COVERS MY BODY CAN WE PLEASE JUST DO SOME POLITICS NOW" fuck-off attitude. Gail Collins once wrote that one of Hillary's "unheralded contributions to the cause of American women in politics was to wear exactly that same outfit every day during her first campaign for Senate. After a while, nobody talked about her clothes anymore, and I envisioned a glorious future in which women running for office could just toss on their black pantsuit in the morning and head for the door."
Suddenly, in 2012, Hillary's refusal to change herself became cool; her big sunglasses and no-frills attire were meme-ified via Texts From Hillary. Moral of the story? Do you, and eventually everyone anyone who matters will appreciate it and respect you even more.
Don't feed the trolls.
Because they'll never be full.
We ran a piece last week about a few people who owe Hillary Clinton a massive apology — and that was just related to her postponed Benghazi testimony. (Sorry, we mean her elaborate ruse to shirk it.) But while all these losers owe her an apology, it's not as if she'll ever get it. She passed last week's hearing with flying colors — she took responsibility (and even got emotional), but didn't grovel or cower — but this is how FOX covered it.
Save your time worrying about people who matter and tune out everyone who just wants to get a rise out of you.
Related: Check out Feministing's awesome GIF guide to dealing with mansplainers, starring guess who.
Work hard and try not to take everything so seriously.
Hillary logged enough miles to constitute almost 90 full days in the air as Secretary of State and she still manages to have a sense of humor, whether responding to Texts from Hillary with her own "text from Hillary" or joking with Angela Merkel about pantsuits or busting a move. If she had spent more time giving a fuck what people thought, she wouldn't have accomplished half as much over the past four years — or ended up with such astronomically high approval ratings.