Yes, Hillary Clinton Is Shrill. No, It’s Not Sexist To Say So.

So, if you point out that Hillary Clinton is increasingly shrill these days, you’re a sexist. That, at least, is the allegation from Clinton supporters who apparently have temporary amnesia about their treatment of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, among others. Here’s The New York Times on the subject:

Hillary Clinton has been speaking in public for decades. But in recent days, political observers have called her voice “loud, flat, harassing to the ear.” They have said she has a “decidedly grating pitch and punishing tone” and called her “shrill”…. Even Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor whose 2004 campaign became immortalized by a widely mocked scream, said the criticism of Mrs. Clinton was sexist.

Hillary and her supporters playing the sex card?! No, it cannot be! Not from the same woman who said she’d be different from Barack Obama because of her vagina! Not from the same woman who said last night that she wasn’t part of the Democratic establishment because of her vagina! Not from the same woman who claims that Bernie Sanders targets her because of her vagina!

Of course, even The New York Times reporters have ears that have been assaulted by the smooth tones of the former First Lady, and they eventually acknowledge as much: “Privately, even Mrs. Clinton’s friends and supporters say that lately she does seem to be raising her voice more than usual.” But, says the Times, the fact that we have ears that hurt from Hillary’s shrieking is just evidence that our ears are sexist: “In some ways, the debate over Mrs. Clinton’s speaking style is a reflection of the larger phenomenon of her candidacy — and that she is the first woman to have a serious shot at becoming a major political party’s presidential nominee.”

Actually, no. Nobody calls Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) shrill, because she’s not shrill. She may have lifeless eyes, a doll’s eyes, but she doesn’t shriek like a wounded seagull. It turns out that the word “shrill” has a meaning: “high-pitched and piercing in sound quality.”

Well, why don’t you decide for yourself by watching the video above.

Reality isn’t sexist. It’s just reality. And Hillary ought to take her voice down a notch before we all go deaf.