The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd advised Hillary Clinton “how to campaign as a woman,” using a series of sexist tropes in line with her more than 20 years of gendered attacks on the former secretary of state.

In an April 19 op-ed for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd wrote that Hillary Clinton is a “granny” who “can't figure out how to campaign as a woman” after she “scrubbed out the femininity, vulnerability, and heart” required to do so during her 2008 presidential run. Claiming Clinton is now trying to shift her image after she “saw the foolishness of acting like a masculine woman,” Dowd  asserted that the candidate “always overcorrects,” and is now “basking in estrogen.” Dowd concluded, saying hopefully Clinton will “teach her Republican rivals...that bitch is still the new black” instead :

Hillary always overcorrects. Now she has zagged too far in the opposite direction, presenting herself as a sweet, docile granny in a Scooby van, so self-effacing she made only a cameo in her own gauzy, demographically pandering presidential campaign announcement video and mentioned no issues on her campaign's website.

In her Iowa round tables, she acted as though she were following dating tips from 1950s advice columnists to women trying to “trap” a husband: listen a lot, nod a lot, widen your eyes, and act fascinated with everything that's said. A clip posted on her campaign Facebook page showed her sharing the story of the day her granddaughter was born with some Iowa voters, basking in estrogen as she emoted about the need for longer paid leave for new mothers: “You've got to bond with your baby. You've got to learn how to take care of the baby.”

[...]

Let's hope that the hokey Chipotle Granny will give way to the cool Tumblr Chick in time to teach her Republican rivals -- who are coming after her with every condescending, misogynist, distorted thing they've got -- that bitch is still the new black.

Dowd's advice for Hillary Clinton relied on the same kind of sexist tropes the columnist has spent more than twenty years using to attack the former secretary of state. According to a Media Matters analysis of 195 of Dowd's columns written during her tenure at the Times, 72 percent painted Clinton in a negative light. In those columns, Dowd repeatedly accused Clinton of being an enemy to or betraying feminism (35 columns, 18 percent of those studied), power-hungry (51 columns, 26 percent), unlikeable (9 columns, 5 percent), or phony (34 columns, 17 percent).

And in the 2008 elections, Dowd consistently used gendered criticism to mock Hillary Clinton and her other Democratic rivals. A Media Matters review of Dowd's columns between 2007 and 2008 found she repeatedly employed gendered critiques of Clinton, referring to her as masculine and domineering, calling her “mommie dearest,” the “debate dominatrix” and “Mistress Hillary.”