What Hillary Clintons Campaign Can Learn From Etsy
Hillary Clinton's unofficial campaign slogan is already here, and it's on needlepoint. For 25, you can buy a full-color needlepoint of the phrase "Bitches Get Stuff Done" on Etsy, a website where crafters sell their wares. Or, if you prefer, you can buy a more subdued blue-and-white needlepoint with the same phrase. Or you can get it on a hand-painted wine glass, handmade coffee mug, letterpress print, notecard, hand-drawn pin or even a large block of wood. The phrase is just one of many associated with Clinton among the handmade feminist and political paraphernalia for sale on Etsy. There's also "Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world." And "If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle." And "Hillary 2016 Good things come to those who wait." And even "S S Hillary.", None are as popular, though, as "Bitches Get Stuff Done," a phrase that has broken free of its origins in a pro-Hillary sketch on "Saturday Night Live." But while it's become an all-purpose feminist slogan, many of the Etsy sellers told TIME that they were well aware of its links to Clinton, whose likely candidacy in 2016 they support with varying degrees of enthusiasm. You may not remember where the phrase originated, so here's a refresher. It was February of 2008, Clinton was battling with Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. "Saturday Night Live," which had been off the air due to a writer's strike, returned to the air with a vengeance. In an episode packed with political sketches, former SNL writer Tina Fey stole the show with a riff about why feminists should support Clinton's candidacy "Maybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch. Let me say something about that Yeah, she is.  You know what? Bitches get stuff done. That's why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers and not priests.", San Diego resident Renee Rominger was watching that night and she was struck by the phrase. "It always stuck with me," she said in an email to TIME. "I've always loved and admired Amy Poehler and Tina as strong and intelligent women so to see them put it out straight like that was great. Especially because they used the term bitch' since it's used to put down strong women.", Rominger, who runs a shop on Etsy called MoonriseWhims that's heavy on Lisa Simpson, Liz Lemon and girl power slogans like "Ovaries Before Brovaries," soon added the phrase to her stable of feminist slogans. Though it's not as popular as, say, her "Cats Against Cat Calls" patch, she expects to sell more as 2016 approaches and excitement builds for Clinton's as-yet-unannounced campaign. She and other Etsy sellers of Clinton-related paraphernalia generally say they aren't unreserved fans, but they all said they admired her tenacity and were excited by the prospect of a female presidential candidate. Kristen Myers, a fine arts student in New York, sells a matte finish greeting card with her own phrase "I love you almost as much as I love Hillary Clinton" for 4 on her Etsy shop, alongside cards with sayings such as "That took ovaries!!!!!" "Congrats on your student loan debt" and "You're really good at making pancakes." She said the Clinton card is the best-selling of a rather small shop, having sold 54 notecards and one print. "I am in many ways a fan of Hillary Clinton, though I wouldn't say I support her without a degree of skepticism," she said in an email. "Some of her policies I like, some I don't like, but I definitely admire her tenacity in the face of all that she has to put up with as such a visible, high-profile woman politician.", For now, Clinton paraphernalia on Etsy remains a small but noticeable trend. Because of her name recognition, her impending campaign and the website's demographics 80 percent of shop owners are women and they tend to be college-educated, Clinton is easily outpacing her likely 2016 rivals in unofficial merchandise. But Justin Rothshank, an Indiana resident who sells handmade coffee mugs on his Etsy shop featuring custom ceramic decals of various presidents and a handful of first ladies, senators and Supreme Court justices, says it's probably too soon to tell how well Hillary Clinton merchandise will do. "I wouldn't say that Hillary is a big seller, but  I've found that all political figures sell well during election seasons, and not that well the rest of the time," he said in an email. "Except Abe Lincoln. He's popular all the time."