Emily Articulated: Femininomenon

By Emily Erickson
Reader Staff

A young girl raised her hand and was called upon by former-President Gerald Ford. It was 1989. The girl asked, “Mr. Ford, what advice would you give a young lady wanting to become president of the United States?”

He responded, “Well I hope we do have a young lady at some point become president of the United States. I can tell you how I think it will happen because it won’t happen in the normal course of events. Either the Republican or Democratic political party will nominate [and elect] a man for president and a woman for vice president. 

“In that term of office, the president will die, and the woman will become president under the law or Constitution. Once that barrier is broken, from then on, men better be careful because they’ll have a hard, hard time ever even getting a nomination in the future.”

I was driving back from a run in the Selkirks, talking to a friend about the upcoming presidential election, and described my inkling that if President Joe Biden was going to drop out of the 2024 race, he’d have to do it within the next few days. We talked about our shared dread leading up to November and reminisced about feeling excited for a candidate – something that felt far away, tied to college and our early-20s. 

Emily Erickson. Courtesy photo.

Then my phone pinged, signaling a return to service, and didn’t stop pinging for a minute straight. Notifications filled my phone screen with Biden’s withdrawal letter headlining every major news outlet, and his endorsement for Kamala Harris 30 minutes later effectively locking her in as the Democratic nominee and champion.

As the day unfolded, I watched my social media platforms overflow with content, as one celebrity and Democratic leader after another pledged their support for the vice president. The momentum felt palpable, like the air growing heavy before a storm, epitomized by a downpour of memes, TikTok videos and youth culture veritably “sounding off.” 

The phrase, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” has gained particular resonance. Used in a speech by Harris last year, the broader statement is a challenge to young Americans to realize that, “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you,” and to get engaged.  

Harris’ “coconut tree” quote was quickly repurposed, remixed and shared as an emblem of her relatability — representing a reprieve for young people who are repeatedly asked to participate in systems in which they’ve never been able to see themselves. 

With similar sentiment, singer-songwriter Charli XCS posted on X, “Kamala IS brat,” a tweet that has since garnered more than 300,000 likes and 42,000 reposts.

But the momentum around Vice President Harris wasn’t just in meme format. In the first week of her campaign, 170,000 people signed up to volunteer, matched by $200 million raised — 66% of which came from first-time donors, as reported by the Harris campaign. Zoom meetings with coalitions of identity groups broke the platform as they streamed in solidarity with the V.P. (with the recent “White Dudes for Harris” reaching 190,000 participants).

Of course, all this enthusiasm hasn’t occurred without pushback and a general questioning of whether we’re a country “ready” to elect a female president — a fear I also couldn’t help but entertain. But any vestiges of doubt I experienced have been washed away with a sense of right-ness. Because now, more than ever — and certainly more than in 2016 — is the perfect time to elect a female president.

Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, and as the GOP continues its march against reproductive rights (now expanding the conversation on abortion restrictions to IVF and contraception), women’s issues are at the forefront of this election story.

Exacerbating this is the Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, infamously using “childless cat ladies” as a pejorative and arguing that only parents can care about the country, as they’re the ones with a “direct stake in it.”

And finally, with the top of the Republican presidential ticket being a man deemed liable for sexual assault by a jury in 2023, and an agenda to continue to turn back the clock on progress and equality, the time has never been more ripe for female leadership.

Only a woman, especially one who is energizing and mobilizing young people with all her relevant experience, could rise with such authenticity to contrast a campaign built on systematically stripping away women’s freedoms. And only a minority woman could represent the myriad groups of people who have come to expect the worst from legislation and policy designed to directly affect them.

For the past eight years, the Democratic Party has been stuck in a cycle of choosing presidential candidates that upset the least amount of people, counting on voters to dread-march to the polls to “protect the soul of democracy” (in stark contrast to the Hulk Hogan-level of excitement Republican voters have been enjoying). They’ve been trading youth and energy for mild neutrality — for upholding the status quo.

But, at a time when “unprecedented events” are the precedent, it feels good to match all the change and upheaval in the world with one that we get to choose. Because President Ford may have been close to predicting how a female would become president. But a reality in which we get to make that history ourselves? That would be so much sweeter.