About Penis Politics
• Publisher: Sartoris Literary Group (December 1, 2021)
• Paperback: 256 pages
A Memoir of Women, Men and Power is a compelling coming-of-age story, set both in small-town Mississippi and big-city New York, with a long layover in the nation’s capital. Karen Hinton chronicles her life from tiny Soso, Mississippi (pop. 408), to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), where she played on the Lady Rebels basketball team, had embarrassing encounters with literary luminaries such as William Styron and Willie Morris, and received a degree in journalism . . . to stints at two newspapers, where she worked as a reporter-the Jackson Daily News and the Rocky Mountain News-to working on the political campaigns of two Black political candidates, one of whom was elected to Congress, thus becoming the first Black representative from Mississippi since Reconstruction.
Hinton went on to become one of the most colorful and outspoken political communications professionals in Washington and New York. Best known for her role as press secretary to both former Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, Karen played what Politico dubbed the “Helen of Troy role” in the clash between the former Governor of New York and the Mayor that the New York Times called “one of America’s ugliest political feuds.” The Wall Street Journal described “the wisdom she dispensed in a Southern twang” in dealing with the strutting and chest pounding of New York’s two most powerful leaders.
After a decade spent running her own public relations firm in Washington, taking on issues she cared about-poverty, urban economies, the environment-she relocated to New York and became Mayor de Blasio’s press secretary. She found herself at the center of the crossfire between longtime frenemies Cuomo and de Blasio, often becoming the subject of news coverage herself. She ascribes her success to ignoring the advice a boy in high school inscribed in her yearbook: “Karen, we love you, but would you please shut up!”
At the center of Hinton’s incredible rise to the pinnacle of success was an undercurrent of men behaving badly. The role that “penis politics” played in Hinton’s life began in childhood with school employees who demanded sexual favors from her female classmates-and extended throughout her life as she bore witness to the struggles that she and her friends and colleagues have undergone to deal with sexual abuse, sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
Social Media
Please use the hashtag #PenisPolitics and tag @tlcbooktours and @jkarenhinton.
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About Karen Hinton
Mississippi native Karen Hinton is a nationally-recognized media professional in Washington and New York. Best known for her role as press secretary to both former Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Hinton cut her teeth as the press secretary for the first Black Congressman from Mississippi since Reconstruction in 1986. The Democratic National Committee hired her in 1989, serving a similar role for Ron Brown, who was the first Black Chairman of the DNC and a key political strategist to elect Bill Clinton as President. In 1995, Hinton joined the Clinton Administration as press secretary for Cuomo at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During that time, President Clinton began to face charges of womanizing (and worse). When Clinton’s defenders tried to dismiss the women as “trailer park trash” and “bimbos,” Hinton went public with her own story about Clinton asking for a night of sex when he was Governor of Arkansas and she was a young Democratic campaign aide in Mississippi. The revelation resulted in Hinton being eased out of her senior administration position, one of the events which sparked her interest in giving a name to “penis politics”. Hinton later relocated to New York and became Mayor de Blasio’s press secretary. She found herself at the center of the crossfire between longtime frenemies Cuomo and de Blasio, often becoming the subject of news coverage herself.
Find out more about Karen on her website, Twitter, and Instagram.
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