Hillary Clinton absolutely cannot express negative emotion in public. If she speaks loudly or gets angry or cries, she risks being seen as bitchy, crazy, dangerous. (When she raised her voice during the 2013 Benghazi Senate committee hearings, the cover of the New York Post blared “NO WONDER BILL’S AFRAID.”) But if Hillary avoids emotions—if she speaks strictly in calm, logical, detached terms—then she is cold, robotic, calculating.

You’d think the solution might be to put on a happy face, to admit to emotions only when they are positive. But it turns out that people hate it when Hillary Clinton smiles or laughs in public. Hillary Clinton’s laugh gets played in attack ads; it has routinely been called “a cackle” (like a witch, right? Because she’s old, and female, like a witch); frozen stills of Hillary laughing are routinely used to make her look “crazy” in conservative media.

She can’t be sad or angry, she can’t be happy or amused, and she can’t refrain from expressing any of those emotions. There is no way out of this one. There is no right way for her to act.

Will Trump Help Hillary?

The Clintons at Donald Trump's most recent wedding

How Donald Trump May Be Helping Hillary Clinton Bloomberg Politics

Steve McMahon, a Democratic strategist, called Trump's attack "misogynistic" and predicted it will rally women to Clinton's side.

"It reminds the women who love her so much of the kinds of things that professional and successful women have to go through every day. So it solidifies and strengthens her core female vote, which is fantastic for her," McMahon said. "She's no stranger to [these attacks]. And no one handles it more adroitly than Hillary Clinton does. We saw it in 2008, we saw it in 2000 when she ran against Rick Lazio, and we're seeing it today. It's a reminder that she's at her best and strongest when she's under attack."

Hillary Clinton Headlines Dec. 24, 2015

Sanders fails to convert data breach into new support Politico

CNN Poll: Post-debate, voters move to Clinton CNN

Clinton campaign sweats out data breach damage Politico

Hillary Clinton's Line of Attack (on terrorism) Slate

Preliminary ABC Democratic debate numbers: Not bad Politico