• Politics

What Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Can Learn From Etsy

4 minute read

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: “Sì Sì 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.

Hillary Pin Etsy
A Hillary Clinton pin for sale on Etsy, made by Lia Lane.Lia Lane

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.

Hillary Clinton Card Etsy
A Hillary Clinton greeting card for sale on Etsy, made by Kristen Myers.Kristen Myers

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.

Hillary Clinton Mug Etsy
Hillary Clinton mug for sale on Etsy, made by ceramic artist Justin Rothshank.Justin Rothshank

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.”

See Hillary Clinton's Evolution in 20 Photos

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Teenager: Hillary Rodham poses in her 1965 senior class portrait from Park Ridge East High School in Illinois. AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Law School Student: Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham pose for a snapshot at Yale Law School in 1972. They married in 1975.Clinton Presidential Library
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Mother: Clinton poses with her husband, Bill, then in his first term as governor, with their week-old daughter, Chelsea, on March 5, 1980.Donald R. Broyles—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Campaign Companion: Clinton celebrates her husband's victory in a Democratic runoff in Little Rock, Ark. on June 8, 1982.AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Arkansas First Lady: Clinton is seen in her inaugural ball gown in 1985. A. Lynn—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Political Wife: Clinton celebrates her husband's inauguration in Little Rock on Sept. 20, 1991.Danny Johnston—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Dignitary: Clinton receives an honorary law degree from Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., on May 30, 1992.Chris Ocken—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a meeting during the presidential campaign for her husband in Buffalo, N.Y., on April 4, 1992.Bill Sikes—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
First Lady: Clinton appears at the MTV Inauguration Ball at the Washington Convention Center on Jan. 20, 1993. Shayna Brennan—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Second-Term First Lady: Clinton attends the Inaugural Ball after her husband was sworn in to a second term on Jan. 20, 1997. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
New York Senator: Clinton speaks at a press conference with female Democratic senators in Washington on June 21, 2006. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Committee Member: Clinton listens to the testimony of Lt. General David Petraeus to the Senate Armed Forces Committee at a hearing on Capital Hill in Washington on Jan. 23, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Candidate: Clinton holds a a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., while running for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sept. 2, 2007. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Campaigner: Clinton speaks at a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Jan. 2, 2008. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State: Clinton kisses President Obama at a joint session of Congress in Washington on Feb. 24, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Witness: Clinton joins Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Dec. 3, 2009. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Witness: Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Jan. 23, 2013.J. Scott Applewhite—AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Author: Clinton attends a signing memoir, "Hard Choices," at a Costco in Arlington, Va., on June 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Grandmother: Clinton holds her granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City on Sept. 27, 2014.Office of President Clinton/AP
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Once and Future Candidate: Clinton speaks at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa, on Sept. 14, 2014. Brooks Kraft—Corbis

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