you could practically see the t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase before it left donald trump<u+2019>s mouth on wednesday night: <u+201c>such a nasty woman.<u+201d> the hashtag #nastywoman started trending almost immediately on twitter. <u+201c>from one nasty woman to another, you were an inspiration last night,<u+201d> nancy pelosi tweeted at clinton. <u+201c>rt if you<u+2019>re a nasty woman and it<u+2019>s made your life a freakin<u+2019> pleasure,<u+201d> wrote lena dunham; by midday thursday, 3,000 or so women had done just that. the supersaturation of these kinds of moments is such that the phrase might well be over and tired by tomorrow at noon. but then again, it might stick around, because of how well it suits, and reframes, the brand that is hillary clinton. it was the insult of her dreams: a rallying cry with more heat and emotion than any her campaign has generated in lo these many years. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m with her<u+201d> always risked sounding as if it was more about clinton, as female candidate, than the person saying it. the women who are laying claim to being <u+201c>nasty women,<u+201d> by contrast, are not just announcing their support for clinton. they are also identifying with an anger that she has rarely shown but they can imagine she feels. to describe yourself, with glee, as a nasty woman is a powerful unleashing, a refutation of all that girls are brought up to be: subservient, silent and accommodating, to the point of personal risk. clinton<u+2019>s own careful control of her emotions has, of course, cost her. the public has sensed the effort that goes into her appearances, the careful titration of her comebacks for fear of appearing witchy or harsh or emasculating. and yet in trying to punish her for her more overt displays of hostility, with one interruption, trump instantly turned harshness <u+2014> fierceness <u+2014> into a celebrated badge of honor. at the debate, clinton did seem to let loose a tougher, less insistently congenial version of herself than what she typically allows; even on the subject of late-term abortions, about which she has fallen over herself qualifying her commitment in the past, she did not back off. she spoke, passionately and with authority, about women in china and in romania who did not have control over their reproductive rights. that moment, in its delivery and conviction, was a remarkable echo of comments clinton made in 2009 when, as secretary of state, she offered up testimony before the house that went viral . asked whether she and president obama were working to overturn anti-abortion laws overseas, and whether reproductive rights included abortion, clinton responded with unapologetic frankness, testifying about women she saw in brazil who were <u+201c>fighting for their lives against botched abortions,<u+201d> and girls as young as 12 in africa bearing children, before concluding that yes, the administration would advocate abortion rights as part of reproductive health wherever it saw fit. she appeared more confident in that testimony than she ever does while campaigning. she seems least self-conscious about her anger when she is marshaling it in the service of something other than an effort to be elected. clinton has always seemed more comfortable on the job than seeking one. maybe what she was showing on wednesday night was that she was already, given the polls, starting to own the authority that she will in all probability be granted on nov. 8. maybe trump even noticed that, which is why, after a relatively disciplined performance, he devolved once more to personal attacks. we went from a male candidate, four years ago, professing to have binders full of women he might appoint to a male candidate actually confronted with one who is thwarting his ambitions. small wonder he found the rude shock of it nasty <u+2014> and small wonder so many women are enjoying every minute of his discomfort with it. susan dominus is a staff writer for the magazine.
the nickname hillary clinton has been waiting for
susan dominus