In a recent Internet discussion, the subject of Hillary Clinton's gender presentation came up. Several people in the discussion said that their main objection to Hillary Clinton was how masculine she was. Here is my assessment of that complaint.

My perspective on the masculine perception is that it has a lot to do with the way Hillary uses her voice, her hair, her eye contact, and her body language. (Not that "use" is exactly the right verb for all those aspects, but you can see what I mean.) She doesn't shrink in any way. She stands her ground, and while women are generally conditioned to say excuse me and I'm sorry, even when the onus doesn't fall on them to do so, she doesn't engage in that kind of self-justifying behavior.

Recently, I read that in one culture other than American, women are trained to raise the pitch of their voices and speak in kind of a falsetto at work, in deference to male coworkers and bosses. The automatic labeling of Hillary as masculine comes from, in my estimation, this kind of deep-rooted filter that women should act like princesses or children.

In person, Hillary Clinton strikes me as beautiful. Her media position at this time has as much to do with how she looks as anything. I wish more people could see her and see her real smile. I am pleased and proud that Mrs. Clinton knows how to handle ridiculous attacks on her gender. She puts them in their rightful place, expected but silly.