As many have seen, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been on a diplomatic mission to Kenya for most of the week. While in Nairobi, Secretary Clinton participated in a town hall meeting moderated by Newsweek’s International editor and host of CNN’s GPS, Fareed Zakaria. Fareed asked Secretary Clinton about an incident from 2000, back when she was First Lady. Apparently, a wealthy Kenyan man offered the then-first family a very large dowry for Chelsea Clinton’s hand in marriage. The offer? Forty goats and 20 cows. Fareed’s mention or “dowry shout-out” was met with laughter, but Hillary replied that she will “convey” the offer to Chelsea:
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan man’s offer of 40 goats and 20 cows for Chelsea Clinton’s hand in marriage may still be on the table – and Hillary Rodham Clinton has promised to convey the “very kind offer” to her daughter.
To laughter at a town hall meeting Thursday in Kenya, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria asked the U.S. Secretary of State if the Clintons had made a decision on the dowry offer. In 2000, a Kenyan man wrote to then-president Bill Clinton offering the animals in accordance with African tradition.
After a pause, Clinton said, “My daughter is her own person, very independent, so I will convey this very kind offer.”
Clinton has denied rumors that her daughter, 29, is planning to get married this summer.
[From Huffington Post]
Dude, how many goats could I get for my dowry? I bet I could get at least a baker’s dozen. I’m not sure about the cows though. Could I trade one goat for a couple of cute kittens? Or a pair of doves? I’ve always wanted doves. Maybe a hamster.
I sometimes wonder what Hillary and Chelsea talk about. I can guarantee that they don’t gossip about celebrities like my mom and I do. Does Hillary nag Chelsea about settling down, getting married and having babies, as mothers often do? Or does Hillary kind of respect Chelsea’s privacy, letting her live her life without interference whatsoever? I tend to think the latter.
Chelsea’s single status has been up in the air for most of the year – many sources have claimed that she’s engaged to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, and is planning some nice Martha’s Vineyard wedding some time this year. National Enquirer has a source who claims: “They’re officially putting out word that there’s no wedding, but that’s just to confuse the media. Invites will soon be going out by Federal Express, telling them all the details. The Clintons have worked out everything. All the rooms are booked. All the guests have to do is show up at their local airport, and they’ll be flown to the location.” That sounds like Chelsea’s way of doing things, but I do think that Hillary and Bill would probably like a big extravaganza for their only daughter’s big day. If and when Chelsea gets married, I bet it will be a huge deal, because her parents will make it a huge deal.
Here’s Chelsea at her mom’s swearing-in as Secretary of State in February. Images thanks to WENN.com .
Kaiser I would offer a baker’s dozen baby ducks for your hand. Maybe even throw in half a dozen geese to sweeten the pot.
Thanks, Jaybird! I would offer a barrel of violin and flute-playing mice for your dowry!
this is so embarrassing for women. you can be as intelligent and high ranking as hillary clinton and still have to deal with offers of goats and shit… and a midget dictator still wants to deal with your currently unemployed husband rather than you… when will women not have to put up with this crap? *barf*
I’d just like enough to fill out a full orchestra please. I cook and bake, I think that’s reasonable.
I’m glad Hil can roll with a joke; I think it’s the mark of a good politician. I would bet, though, that they DO gossip about celebrities. They appear to be very close, and they probably talk about EVERYTHING under the sun. Both Hillary and Chelsea seem like such normal people to me it’s easy to picture them laughing at some starlets antics over coffee.
fizXgirl314:
What would you prefer, offers of cash? 😉
In the Arab world Chelsea would be considered camel-worthy: blonde, high-profile family…and Western, meaning “Hassan will get many, many blow job.”
you know, i realize we’re supposed to laugh at it and brush it off like it’s cute… haha sexism, how adorable… but i refuse to, especially when it concerns someone in some sort of high ranking position.
i’ve said it a thousand times but i’ll continue to say it until the point becomes very clear. we are willing to make racism out of every issue, but are hesitant to call out something as sexist when it’s blatantly so. and that is why women will progress very very slowly in society. heck, some of these countries have been carrying on business as usual with their sexist attitudes for thousands of years.
I grew up in a sexist household and i work in a male dominated field so these issues are fairly important to me.
I realize hillary clinton has to save face and grin and bear it because she can’t be calling someone out for acting “stupidly” in public, but i don’t have to. hows about a little outrage? if i were hillary clinton or her daughter i’d be pretty mortified about this. they wouldn’t have the guts to make such an offer to bill clinton would they?
how about a little respect for a hard working and intelligent woman huh? ARGH!!!!!
Hilary Clinton has a spine of steel and is a first-class politician. Only the very stupid will underestimate her simply because of her gender.
She’s in no way demeaned – the misogynistic virii (the male and female variety both) that oink out this crap are.
Every time a chauvinist piggie sings, another humanist gets their wings.
Well, I guess we’ll just have to apply that premise to every situation then don’t we? If something is inherently stupid, then it should be self evident without further focus on the matter and should presumably fix itself. Problem solved… I guess i don’t have to go to work today, it’ll just take care of itself… easy peasy :-p
All I’m saying is don’t ‘reward’ the bad behaviour with an outraged response from what will be perceived as ‘hysterical feminists’ by that element – because that’s just too easy and it plays right into their hands.
They’re trying to push her buttons, and failing miserably at it I might add.
No doubt Hillary Clinton is badass, and however she chooses to handle it I fully support. However, *I* don’t think it’s funny and I’m not afraid to be called hysterical for my opinion.
Whatever I think of Bill & Hill (which ain’t much)…….
THeir daughter is the one sole thing they got right.
Team Chelsea all day long.
fizXgirl314….I’m a woman, and your statements within this site (which is meant to be primarily light-hearted / good for a laugh), are somewhat misplaced. This is not a place for the easily offended methinks, in any regard.
I have a teeny sneaking suspicion that you may be the type of person that yells “harassment” any time someone looks sideways at you.
Never mind the fact that when you’re playing on the world stage, you don’t always have the luxury of imposing your own thoughts and beliefs on cultures / customs unlike your own. It’d be like going to the arctic and trying to turn the inuit into vegans.
Sounds to me like Hillary handled the situation very tactfully, and might I add, still got the message across.
At risk of sounding PC, I’d like to say to this man: “Look, if we have to tolerate other cultures, how come other cultures won’t do the same? Well, IN MY CULTURE, it’s offensive to offer a dowry, so you might as well STFU!”.
I have long suspected that Fareed Zakaria was sexist and patriarchical. He presents good material sometimes and I guess he is a bridge to understanding the Muslim patriarchs, but I wish he’d be a bit more aware of women’s traditional oppression and how much this has cost us all.
I’ll take her off your hands Hilary, I love smart redheads.
What the Kenyan man offered is bride-price – goods offered in exchange for what the bride’s value is perceived to be. Dowry is what a bride brings to the marriage as a present from her parents to the groom. Both can be seen as sexist traditions.
However, in Islam, what a man offers is neither dowry nor bride price. It’s called “haq meher” and is a gift of money for the woman to keep for her own use. Should he divorce her, she gets to keep the money; if she divorces him, she has to return it. Just had to clarify that to those who think the tradition of dowry has anything to do with Islam.
She should hold out for a better offer. My mother was once offered 1,000 camels and 500 goats for me.
I’m pretty sure the guy knew that we don’t trade goats for women in this country… I believe the offer was made to demean her… anyway, that’s beside the point. I just find it insulting that this offer was made to Hillary Clinton and not say Bush for his daughters or something. Obviuosly her gender has a lot to do with it.
orion, women like you make me sick because you make it difficult for other women to stand up for themselves by basically calling them hystrionic. you really think that a high ranking official being offered goats is a small matter not worthy of getting a tad bit outraged about? *eyeroll*…
The site may be “for fun” but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a serious discussion every once in a while, especially when the article is about a politician…
I think Mrs. Clinton’s answer was very respectful and tactful.
You cannot always impose your own personal beliefs whenever you’d like, especially in a field like politics (or someone seeking the highest political office in the land in the future).
The “offer” may seem offensive to some, but you still need to have a basic sense of respect for other’s cultures.
It was not the time nor place for Mrs. Clinton to holler “SEXISM!!!” when she heard the offer. It would’ve looked out of place and she would’ve seemed like just another angry feminist and what purpose would that have served?
I think feminism has its place but to call a Kenyan man’s dowry offer very sexist (which it was, but hey that’s their culture, who are you to judge another’s culture?) during a public news conference was certainly the wrong time and place to do so.
She handled her response with class and tact and I’m very impressed that she didn’t behave very ignorantly otherwise.
She started out well with stating that her daughter is her own person.
“My daughter is her own person, very independent, so I will convey this very kind offer.”
Shame that she felt she had to be polite and smoothe it over, instead of continuing “so I doubt that she would be prepared to consider such an offer” would have been a nice follow up.
She’s getting loopy. Check the waistband on her pantsuit, maybe it’s too tight.
Blowing that much on a wedding absolutely baffles me – and the origin of that money even more so. I just hope they will live happily ever after, because a divorce after a wedding of this size will certainly not make Chelsea’s parents very happy!
Blowing that much on a wedding absolutely baffles me – and where they got that kind of money even more so. I simply hope they will be happy, because a split after a wedding of this magnitude will definitely not make Chelsea’s parents very happy!
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