Sarah Palin: a Rorschach for Feminists
By Artemis March on November 12, 2008 at 9:00 PM in Sarah Palin, Sexism
(Ed.’s Note: We are very honored to feature the writings of Artemis March. This is the first in a series of her essays on feminism and politics.)
Feminist eruptions about Sarah Palin have been stunning. Eve Ensler went ballistic. NOW endorsed an all-male ticket and disavowed Palin. Gloria Steinem contradicted her January op-ed argument. Naomi Wolf spun off into a paranoid fantasy. Feminists urgently circulated petitions full of false claims about Palin. When I sent friends information and links correcting these claims—shouldn’t that reduce fear and allow a saner conversation?—two who wrote back were outraged. Friends who normally speak in dulcet tones were suddenly pitched an octave and decibels higher, unable to converse in the normal rhythm of give and take.
I began asking myself, what is going on with feminists as they rationalize lining up with their misogynist Party/candidate while engaging with this new rorschach named Sarah Palin? How is it that feminists—the Americans most caricatured, distorted, misunderstood, and demonized by the Right and by the Left—are themselves caricaturing, misrepresenting, and demonizing a woman whose policies and beliefs offend them? Is it too much to ask that they at least get their facts straight, and not push rumors and unexamined claims as if they were gospel? How is it that Hillary supporters who have aligned with the DNC’s selectee are exhibiting some of the behaviors they formerly excoriated in Obama devotees (e.g., self-righteous judgmentalism, and the rejection, denial, or trivializing of information unfavorable to their guy)? Is it just too uncomfortable for them to bear the cognitive dissonance entailed by their second choice?
As to those pesky facts: Palin favors contraception. Despite Ms. Gandy’s claim that NOW would not endorse Palin because of her anti-abortion position, as governor and mayor, she never attempted to promote legislation that would weaken or alter abortion laws. Palin tripled (not cut) special needs funding, did not try to ban library books, and has not pushed creationism in schools, only opined that students be allowed to discuss it along with evolutionary theory. Contrary to Charlie Gibson’s inquisition and ABC’s egregious, libelous cropping and editing of not only his interview with Palin but also of the video clip he referenced, she does not see the Iraq war as a mission from God. She asked Alaskans to pray that what our troops, our leaders, and our country are doing there is part of God’s plan. Or, as Lincoln said, to pray that we are on God’s side. Many of our past presidents have expressed similar sentiments, and the world didn’t end.
Exactly how does trashing Sarah Palin—a savvy, self-made woman with whom so many non-elite Americans can identify—advance the feminist agenda? And how far has that agenda advanced these last 40 years? Sexism is still overwhelmingly invisible, misogyny (literally, hatred of women) does not constitute a hate crime, feminists are ridiculed rather than honored, and gender asymmetry is not even on the table. This appalling state of affairs testifies to the depth and comprehensiveness of patriarchy as well as to the limitations of extant feminist strategies.
In her September 19 and 24 letter to NOW PAC members, Ms. Gandy tells us that, “Palin dismisses talk of sexism as whining and says women just need to ‘work harder’ and ‘prove yourself.’” Certainly Ms Gandy knows as well as I do that women who break barriers often feel they have to ignore the sexism and garbage that is heaped on them. They cannot even name what is going on. Why not? If they do, they are called whiners and ridiculed for “playing the victim.”
Worse yet, this double bind is perpetrated not only by the usual suspects, but also by many leftist feminists and self-proclaimed “postfeminists” who denigrate real feminists who are trying to change the many ways women are brutalized by patriarchy. The intention and the result of this leftist/postfeminist ideology is to erase the harsh realities of sexism and misogyny, and deny the validity of women’s experience of them—and that is what I call anti-feminist as well as anti-woman.
The truth is this: A woman can’t deal with sexism solo. She has to have a Greek Chorus to amplify, interpret, and spin with, for, and about her. And, after 40 years, there is no Greek Chorus for women at the national level. Nada. Zip.
- There is no feminist voice in the Old Media, let alone a feminist perspective informing all the media. The media are totally androcentric in their framing of all issues. Women who are allowed face time either see the world as their male bosses do, or tread very carefully with their small departures.
- The DNC never had Hillary’s back, never became her Greek Chorus. They not only betrayed their best candidate in 75 years, but they also betrayed the many constituencies for whom she has a long record of fighting.
And here comes Ms. Gandy adding another layer: dumping on Palin for taking the position that female public figures are routinely forced into because establishment feminism doesn’t have her back, and have not been able to make it possible for her to do otherwise.
After 40 years, feminist organizations and spokeswomen have not been able to create a cultural context that would make it impermissible to attack women and perpetrate the kind of vicious misogyny directed at Hillary Clinton and now at Sarah Palin. It would be a tall order given that patriarchy has been organizing our social world and our culture for 5,000-6,000 years. The only good news here is that the behavior of the DNC has made it transparent to many of us that we’ll never get there by being an appendage of the DNC and held hostage to Roe.
If establishment feminists had any real clout with the DNC, Hillary would be taking the oath of office on January 20. Rather than attacking women candidates who don’t fit their precious self-image, leftist so-called feminists and those wondrous postfeminists should get over themselves. If they had done that a year ago, Hillary would be on her way to the White House, and we wouldn’t be in this mess of opting between which set of candidates scares us less.
Sarah Palin is a rorschach for the Left and for feminists. She has exposed the boundaries and implicit rules for inclusion in their clubs, thereby sparking a much needed dialogue about what feminism is and can be. She has thrown into relief the limitations of establishment feminist strategies, and blown open the door to alternative strategies. Sarah Palin arrived on the national scene at the moment when many Hillary supporters were recognizing an old political truth: If you can’t walk away from the table, you have no bargaining power. If you have no alternatives, you will get nothing but crumbs.
© 2008 by Artemis March.
(Release: November 13)
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Thanks, great post. The hate directed at Palin boggles my mind.
Yes it does.
But passing laws only creates resents (hidden hate). We have to get our message out – not have government enforcers do it.
It is a harder road but it can’t be undone by some slick salesmen running for President.
The hate directed at BOTH Clinton and Palin is mind boggling. This “selection” has just broadened the divide between those of us who could see what was happening and spoke out and were ready to be counted both for Hillary and Sarah, and those of us who just wanted to “go along to get along.” What a sham and what a deep disappointment that women who I expected to take leadership roles in their support of both Hillary and Sarah, pretty well, with some exceptions of course, sat on their hands and zipped up their lips and hoped that a tiny little crumb of the pie would come their way and not be snatched up by someone else. Fat chance. If we don’t stick together, then what hope is there? I’ve been a NOW member for decades and worked hard for equality just to watch the National NOW PAC endorse the team that eviscerated Hillary. So much for women’s rights.
I’m sorry, but can someone explain to me how a bunch of mean, ugly old beyotches, frothing at the mouth, lying, humiliating, bashing, trashing, harassing, etc. another WOMAN can be called “feminists?” What a joke…LMFAO. Those women are phonies. Like I have said…it’s okay to disagree with another woman’s point of view and personal beliefs. These women who went on the psychotic rants need mental health care. Palin IS the new face of feminism. I would prefer strength, dignity, class, intelligence, compassion, honest, etc. than a COVEN OF WITCHES who can’t control their rage over a fabulous person who did NOTHING to them. The rage from these nuts is SCARY. I am appalled by that behavior and ashamed that they call themselves “women.” If someone went after OVomit with that level of rage they would be called beyond RACIST. Why is this behavior by these freaks okay? I don’t get it.
They are the feminists of an era gone by and sadly they have not crossed over into the 21st Century. Sarah Palin shook them up because she isn’t one of them, she is a fresh new face with a vision that doesn’t quite match their tired philosophies. She is a housewife, a mother who chose not to have an abortion (that’s what Pro-Choice is about), a governor, graduated from an un-ivy league college, took six years to graduate because she worked to put herself through college, has an upbeat personality, and is just as intelligent or maybe more so than they are and she had the audacity to run for VP. She is the Super Mom of 2008!
Okay, I’ve rambled enough.
Yes you are right. I am so angry though about the treatment of this incredible woman. Tonight I called my lawyer who I (wrongly) thought was a little conservative. Nevertheless, he has two daughters so I thought he would be fair. He blasted off the SAME exact rhetoric from Communist News Network…”She’s a MORON, who went to an inferior school…she probably never read Homer, the Iliad, Shakespeare, etc.” WTF? I couldn’t believe this was a man I actually used to date, who is my legal representative and someone I admire greatly. The clincher was I said…”How can you talk like that about a woman, when you have two daughters?” He said that he wanted his daughter to “choose what to do with their bodies.” Nice. I can’t remember a time when my own father pushed ABORTIONS on me. He would have been horrified to have that conversation with me. But, yet again, when push came to shove the “A” word was the real reason “Palin’s a moron.” It’s just soooo sad. I’m so pissed again. I don’t respect any of my friends anymore.
Hello OIAF…
Stuck on the road in this hotel tonight.
I was flipping the channels and came across Kieth Overbite.
Can’t believe I used to watch this guy a few years back.
This guy is the biggest ASSHOLE in the world. The way he went after Hillary. The way he continues to slam Sarah.
Overbite is a terrorist symapathizing anti-american traitor.
When this country goes down he will be at the top of my list of scum responsible.
Hey Handsome Moss…
I haven’t watched Overbite in months and months. I would puke, literally. I did, however, leave him some really choice messages on his voicemail. I was surprised I didn’t get a visit from the local constabulary outlet. How’s it out there on the road?
OIAF: Calling women bitches because they disagree with you is a textbook example of misogny.
OIAF: I understand you are mad, livid, t’d off beyond belief. However, I want to point out that calling women who disagree with you “beyothches” does nothing to promote feminism.
Frankly, you’re going on psychotic rant of your own there. Also, please don’t denigrate witches, who are often Wiccan and are a valid religion – no Satan worship, okay? Why would anyone call a bunch of women they don’t like “witches”? Is this Salem in the 1600s?
Do you realize you are displaying the exact sort of behaviour you are calling out? This won’t get us anywhere or further the feminist cause. I’m sorry but you are not portraying any of the strength, dignity or class of which you speak.
Personally I believe abortion, though perhaps rarely a necessity, is very demoralizing to women. They just aren’t in tune with just how strong their own maternal instincts really are.
Trig and Palin’s baby shone a very bright light on the “other” option to abortion causing some very painful internal contemplation. As long as abortion is merely about a woman’s right to choose and not about a baby, it’s perhaps more palatable.
All those babies! They sure are cute, and alive. Just who does Palin think she is?
Sarah Bernhardt was perhaps the most vile, wishing a gang rape for Palin. Some of the most vivid reactions from people happen when they feel the most vulnerable, exposed. Palin doesn’t mean to, but she is turning over the rock of the psyches of many women, who’ve buried a lot of pain. At the same time there is fear over losing access to abortion rights. It’s a very conflicted set of feelings, I think.
Trig – I truly wonder how much of this was due to Trig. How much of it was due to Bristol. How much of this was due to Todd. And how much of it was due to Palin’s plain old University of Iowa degree.
Oh – and how much was due to the fact that Palin is Republican. And then that she was opposing his holiness Obama.
Vampira, I agree with your sentiments.
“I believe abortion, though perhaps rarely a necessity, is very demoralizing to women. They just aren’t in tune with just how strong their own maternal instincts really are…”
ROFLMFAO! OMG!
I’m speechless at that, aside from laughing and shaking my head… just flabbergasted…
I don’t know. While I’m firmly pro choice, I have seen strong women resolute in their decision shattered in the aftermath and forever changed.
There’s a very fine line between abortion being available and without stigma and cultural nonchalance.
True. And they should be able to tell their stories as a warning to others. Something the uber-feminists would not countenance.
Abortion is none of the governments business though.
I once considered having an abortion and all of a sudden an abstraction suddenly become a reality and I began to freak out and just couldn’t do it.
But I also do not want the government or anyone else to make that decision for me or others. I believe that you have to come to a personal awareness of what the whole thing actually means. I would definitely agree that people often do not realize what a profound occurrence this can be for so many women once they are actually confronted with this choice as well as how it can affect them afterwards.
This is a bunch baloney! Just in my circle alone, I know five women who don’t want to have children. Fuck maternal instincts! Don’t reduce women to a biological ideal.
The fact that you so violently dismiss this theory, says you haven’t even taken the time to think about it. Just because a woman doesn’t want a child doesn’t mean she doesn’t have maternal instincts. It is biological. We are animals with instincts and if you are not in tune with these instincts, then you cannot possibly understand your needs, attractions etc….
I came from a large family so I never wanted children…ever. I don’t even like being around them. But it doesn’t mean I DON’T have maternal instincts. They’re just reserved for the 4 (and sometimes 3) legged animals I care for as a vet tech.
you said exactly what i was thinking. i don’t know why people are freaking over that comment. people quite often regret decisions they have made, and it seems quite possible that a woman could regret having an abortion. and DNA isn’t just myth; there’s a reason why females in almost all species do most of the child rearing – because they care about their offspring. i’m not sure women’s lib is going to change that any time soon; and i say this as a feminst from way back.
I’m with you Trixta. I never wanted children either and I am firmly pro-choice. Generalizations and sweeping statments like this one are inaccurate and do not reflect the personal choices and believes of individuals. And BTW I know a number of women who have had abortions and are not plagued by regrets, but have fulfilling lives.
i’m sure there are plenty of women like that; no one will disagree with that, but there are also women who do have regrets.
Yes, I agree completely. You have to wonder how many abortions Behar, Bernhardt, Madonna, Ensler have between them? No one talks about depression and loss of self esteem women undergo via abortion…even when it’s been a deeply examined decision. It’s a wretched choice. If a woman is in danger of losing her existing children due to an unplanned pregnancy, she’s caught between a rock and a hard place. And, it doesn’t always happen as a result of irresponsible behavior…sometimes even the pill doesn’t work.
I don’t think abortion has been this much in the face of women in the past 20 years. Funny, all the unresolved junk from the 60’s is front and center as a result of Sarah and Barry. We wanted to forget the old hippy terrorists. But there they are, coming out from under their rocks; we wanted to pretend that everyone was OK with the status quo of choice…but no. After revealing the odious vote from Barry on live birth abortion, I for one have been shocked back awake on the issue of choice.
Yeah,
Palin is a threat because her “choice” is to have her babies.
Love it.
For a bunch of nutty women to be ANGRY and TRASH Palin BECAUSE she gave birth to Trig…that’s deranged. Pro-Choice? Okay, fine, you get to abort all the babies you want. But where’s the quid pro quo if you want to KEEP a baby? Doesn’t SHE get a “CHOICE” too? I see what you are saying Vampira…I never thought of it that way. But I have said all along that the reason people bash Palin for Trig is their own insecurity. What kind of country have we become when you are a filthy pig for KEEPING a BABY? WTF is happening to America? This whole thing makes me very sad for women. When you see Sarah and Todd with Trig you get why they kept him and how much joy he gives them. It’s NO ONE’S BUSINESS if she kept that baby. Just like it’s NO ONE’S BUSINESS when the liberal “feminists” run off to scrape their uterus.
I would have never believed my own sister could be one of those NUTTY women who trashed Palin because she chose to keep a baby that wasn’t perfect. My sister is a liberal in California but she hated Obama and was going to vote for McCain. I was shocked when her support for McCain died because he chose Palin as his Vice Presidential pick. Her words were “she is downright scary. I mean she chose to keep that baby! Can you believe it! She doesn’t believe in abortion and she kills wolves from an airplane!”
OMG! So my sister feels it would have been OK to kill her baby but she shouldn’t kill wolves. Since when does the life of a baby even equate with that of a wild animal? I was speechless after her rant several months ago and things just haven’t been the same with us since that fight.
I was a Decmocrat, have always considered myself a liberal and voted for Hillary in the primary but something in me changed during the course of this election. It changed after Hillary bowed out of the race and I saw just how terrible the Democrats treated Hillary and then treated Sarah. I admire Sarah for having the courage to keep her baby. I admire her for being a mother of five and the Governor of a huge state. I envy Sarah her wonderful husband and marriage. I think we have all gotten so far away from family values in today’s society and Sarah is a good role model but it’s just too bad that most women see some kind of a threat in her. I like Sarah and look forward to seeing just what kind of a career she ends up with.
Same thing with my two sisters. Not so much Trig, but YES they brought up the stupid wolf thing. They showed me some STUPID ad by a 527 group on how Sarah shoots wolves as if it was the most important issue in the world. I had no idea how to even respond to it. I do think they just WANTED to not like her.
Weird, I got the same wolf thing from two of my Obama loving “feminist” friends. How strange.
They were all up in my face about the wolves.
I got those stories about wolves as well.
Here was my response.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/wolves/story/212634.html
There is more to the story… even the WWF and wildlife conservationists have used these techniques in the Galapagos Islands and elsewhere to bring balance to certain animal populations…
I, for one, will not fight this battle as I have seen firsthand what these animals do in the wild when over population is a problem.
Well I voted McCain/Palin and do not support Palin’s shooting wolves. I am pro environment and don’t support harming other species. I am also pro choice, which means you get to choose. But then my state also has a death with dignity law and I support that as well. Despite my disagreeing with McCain/Palin on a variety of issues, the bigger picture was that Obama was a worse choice and with his constant lies – overt and by omission – and those scary friends of his, I don’t trust him. And what’s with his not wanting to show his birth certificate anyway? What’s the big deal if he has one?
My standard response is to ask them if they eat meat. If they do, they have, IMO, absolutely no right to criticize OTHERS who cause the killings of animals.
They may not be doing it directly, but they ARE also causing the killing of animals. And animals who spend their artificially short lives on factory farms and then are killed on an assembly line of death, hearing all the horror screams of the animals ahead, do NOT have it any easier than a wild animal being killed.
In short, if they aren’t vegan (not even vegetarian), they have NO right to criticize Palin.
You’re right lorac, I spoke with my mouth full, so to speak.
That is a very simplistic argument. It is perfectly logical to be concerned with animal welfare both farmed and in the wild, and as I do, choose to eat only meat that is ethically raised.
Yes Yo !
Finally I feel so not alone. I’m a gay man, sorry ladies to invade your conversation, and I am also fighting with friends and co workers over my swicheroo from Hillary to McCain /Palin.
let me tell you , I am behind Gov. Palin 100 %
They say that McCain lost them when he chose Barbie
as his running mate. She had my attention from the beginning.Okay, the accent I had to learn to love, but I’m there, you betcha ! I have to admit I would have voted for McCain even if he chose Scooby Doo as his running mate.
Sarah Plain is in your face real,and for this former Democrat who wants NOTHING to do with the Democraticly hyjacked party, bring Sarah on !
She is a fresh breath of Alaskan air. I was lucky enough to see her in person, I volunteered at her rally in Scranton,PA. I say stand tall Gov. Plain!
if you would like to send her a thank you card,
here’s the address
The Honorable Gov. Sarah Palin
Alaska State Capitol Building
third floor
PO. Box 110001
Juneau, AK
99811-0001
The accent you had to learn to love is so familiar to us out here in the PNW. All us native PNWrs talk like that. You betcha!
I never realized I had an accent until I married and met my husband’s family in Michigan. His sister said I had a funny accent. Chuckle, chuckle, as though she didn’t have a funny accent or is that called the Midwestern Twang? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not making fun of the Midwestern Twang.
hey there Rebel,
My Boston accent is always made fun of when I travel. we don’t prononce our “r”’s . And depending on which area of the state your from there is much butchering of the English language.
Unfortunately for Gov. Palin she was not given the passes the Sen. for Illinois got.
I don’t think anyone in history has ever been given so many passes. Were we that desparate ?
Look at what Gov. Palin is doing right now as we speak,she’s setting the record straight she’s unleashed, and we are getting the chance to know her. I think I have a new hero ……
This is a fascinating take on the ‘tolerant’ left-wing feminists, and the lack of a feminist voice in the public. bravo! more, please.
I agree. We need more discussion and a new direction of focus on women’s issues.
I support the right to choose, but choice is the key. I respect what ever choice a woman makes in regard to having children. Womens’s issues must not be boiled down to that single issue of choice. We all witnessed the terrible double standard of what is acceptable treatment toward a female vs a male candidate for office. This year was an eye opener for many, some still do not see it as the treatment of Hillary and Palin seemed reasonable to some people. The irony is that even Marilyn Fitterman, a former head of NOW spread lies about Palin’s stance on birth control.
We have come a long way, but we have a steep mountain to climb still.
I am really hopeful about what The New Agenda is doing. Check them out. http://thenewagenda.net/
There was a guest on O’Reilly (don’t know her name, doesn’t matter) tonight who insisted that a woman supporting a woman for gender reasons is absurd. HELLO??? What have men been doing for one another for thousands of years?
I don’t agree with Palin on every issue, but I have a lot of respect for her and I’ll vote for her whenever she runs for president. Enough dicking around in the White House.
Just like everything else this year, “feminists” have been a HUGE disappointment. They’re narrow-minded and super-partisan. pft. I’m for a new party and new feminism.
They haven’t fathomed that she brings a woman’s perspective to the office, and will pay attention to things such as special needs kids, women’s parity in health care, will fight for women’s rights and oppose the backwardness of sharia law, etc.
She writes for the New York Post.
Kirsten Powers – ack another young “feminist” still young attractive and clueless.
Ah ha — we’ve seen people support candidates because they have the penis.
Too bad the GOP couldn’t have found someone “like” Palin but with a penis — this is the theme I’ve seen from the boyz bloggers.
The thing is that the ONE’s campaign theme was sexism — he used it whenever and where ever possible.
The thugs from camp Obama had the misogynistic them at the caucuses — and blogging. A year ago the boyz bloggers were calling Hillary Clinton — Billary. That was the plan –
The ONE had his chorus —
The democrat leadership has told women that we don’t count (other than they needed votes).
I thought I was a feminist — but I am not.
What I am is a NEW feminist — who can understand where Palin is coming from and I honor her choices. She isn’t forcing her choices on my — and there is no way I will try to force my choices on her.
We need strong women in BOTH parties — and Independents who are strong women who respect women
RESPECT — that’s what we need and that is NOT what The ONE — delivered.
I will never have any respect for the ONE — because he has not given me personally any respect.
RESPECT is something that was missing from THE ONE — toward a huge segment of voters.
We need women in BOTH parties elected in GREATER numbers.
And thanks for the post, Artemis, great points!
I wonder if it’s really the abortion issue that has sparked so much hatred from women toward Sarah Palin. Hmm. If they’re mad at the prospect of the first woman at the top being a Republican, PERHAPS THEY SHOULD HAVE HAD HILLARY’S BACK during the primaries.
EXACTLY! Where were these alleged “Feminists” when Hillary got screwed in the Primary? We know for a FACT that Gloria Allred, Geraldine Ferraro, etc. ALL OF THEM knew about the voter fraud. Hell, Gloria Allred is IN our film. And Ferraro agreed to be interviewed on camera for us. So WTF did THEY do to stop the DNC? Where were the PALIN BASHERS when Pelosi, Reid, Brazile and Dean stuck their KNIVES in Hillary’s back? Bunch of HYPOCRITES???????
I think the exaggerated responses from the dem party (my now former party)were due to realizing they’d be shown up. The REPUBLICANS may get the first woman into the white house? Oh, that’s COULDN’T happen. I think they were saving their own faces. Palin being on the ticket has really awakened women to how the dem party takes us for granted, but doesn’t work for us. Remember, the dems have never fought to get the ERA finally passed. Palin’s mere presence was too much of a threat, it showed the facade that was the “feminism” of the dem party.
A feminist is a woman who supports other women no matter whether they are “liberal” or conservative.
Please, NOW’s support for the all male ticket sickened me. Abortion rights? Sarah Palin was no threat to them. Maybe if she had been listened to and her positions and life were REALLY looked at she would be the finest example of American political women to date.
She achieved all that she has with no husband’s political ties, no family ties, no corrupt political mentors. She truly is a self made woman and achiever.
You don’t have to be a woman to be a feminist, and being a feminist does not mean supporting all women regardless of their views.
Nobody is denying that Palin has achieved a certain amount. But that doesn’t make you suitable to be President. Do you really want a President that is a young earth creationist? It’s laughable. Even if they don’t impose creationism in the class room, how can they possibly have the judgement to lead the country in the 21st century with such ludicrous, and obviously disprovable ideas? If somebody lacks the ability to analyse such basic concepts – are you really gonna put them in charge of the most serious financial crisis in a generation?
Disagree, being a feminist means you support women.
Do I really want a President who was chosen based on race and gender?
Seems that’s exactly what you want when you choose Palin purely on gender.
Wow, very articulate article.
I’m hoping the fate of Gov. Palin causes an ongoing dialogue about women and presidential politics.
BTW I got several of those emails too and my refutations were usually met with IRONIC remarks about her not being qualified for the job.
Did you all see Sarah own Larry King’s old prune ass tonight. I think if she had been in studio she would have ripped his head apart. Larry King, its time for you to retire. But what do you expect from a guy who kisses the butt of dictators and says how cute they look in their little suits. But on to the feminism thing, you all have to understand something, NOW is not for WOMWN, it’s for LIBERAL WOMEN. They won’t respect someone like Sarah because she is pro-life, but isn’t feminism the right to believe what you want to believe, I guess as far as NOW is concerned(and by the way NOW is a complete joke) they only support you if you share their views, if you don’t they are against you. Sarah is a prime example of what is RIGHT about America, here is a woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, tell it like it is, and letting the chips fall where they may, she doesn’t need anyone telling her what to do because she is a strong, independent woman. NOW still believes that women belong in the kitchen, making babies, and not having any power
Larry’s past his time but he apparently gets ratings for CNN or they wouldn’t keep him going. I lost all respect for him when he interviewed OJ Simpson.
Earlier today Wolf showed part of an interview he had done with Palin and it was very flattering of her. She did well in it.
….If only her politics were different
There was a woman in my office trying to tell me that Palin wasn’t a feminist because she wasn’t pro-choice. I pointed out that she never put her personal beliefs into legislation, and that means, she IS pro-choice. Her choice just wasn’t abortion.
I explained to this woman how her logic was equating pro-choice with pro-abortion, which is what we’ve spent years arguing with the republicans about, defending that they AREN’T the same, and here a DEM’s logic was acting as if they WERE the same.
I don’t believe NOW is for liberal women either. I believe NOW collects a check from the DNC’s controlling special interest groups and take marching orders accordingly. The candidate that is the choice of the Dem. leadership gets the NOW backing. They were even willing to make jokes about themselves, about willingly wearing knee pads when it was Bill under attack, and getting the full support of the Democrat Party. Knee pads! It was disgusting. And this time, here you had Hillary, having paid her dues, run for senate and won, and won again, and then run a winning campaign for President, and it was taken from her, in the caucuses, because she wasn’t the Democratic Party Rulers’ choice. So, no feminists for you Hillary! I really hope NOW is finished!
By the way, Dr. Lynette Long has a great blogtalk radio show on Mondays, and it’s New Feminists talk, and we need to keep this going and we have to police the playing field and snap the media and the political leaders in line when they veer from fair play to misogyny.
you are correct.
Thank you for this article! It is so important for self-identified feminists to MAKE Sarah Palin an issue in the context of feminism. It is important to have this conversation.
A long time ago, the far left co-opted the term “feminist.” This is why so many moderate and conservative women will say they are not feminists even though they agree with all the fundamental tenets OF feminism. I actually don’t know a single woman who would say, “yeah, I deserve to be paid less than a man for doing the same job,” for example.
This right now is a crossroads moment in feminism. Sarah Palin has galvanized large numbers of moderate and conservative women AND many left-leaners, as well — i.e. the PUMAs. Many of us are on the same page for once and looking at our commonalities as being more important than our differences. Let’s make the most of this moment and take the term “feminist” back! We as a coalition must certainly far out-number the radical left. So let’s not be quiet!
Gloria Steinem the feminist of our time, well my time anyway. And so eloquent in her words about Hillary’s candidacy.
Steinem is one of the old, tired BIDDIES who should get over herself and stop ATTACKING her OWN. Her rants on Palin are unforgivable. I know her. Used to date her nephew. She’s a big nothing and the abortion nonsense is 35 years old. She should pick a new topic and stop bashing women who don’t agree that Feminism = Abortion. Y-A-W-N!
You obviously didn’t read the article which was about Hillary, the female nominee and not at all about Palin.
Hopefully the freaks in this country who live and breathe simply to take down the non christian community and attempt to put their religious beliefs upon all of us, and to stop our rights to abortion and all rights, hopefully this pack of nuts are a dying breed in this country as the freaks are bringing this country down.
I’ll make you a deal.. since I already stated the other day I think you are acomplete psycho. You stay away from my posts and I’ll stay away from yours. I think you are insane and scary.
wow, BJ very intense response….have a cup of tea, maybe you’ll feel better. I don’t see anyone trying to put their religious beliefs upon all of us….Obamabots shoved him down our throats, does that count.
I was going to say the same thing about you. Any azzhole who defends Steinem VICIOUSLY attacking Palin needs mental health care too! It’s NOT OKAY to trash people, although it seems your troll azz decides to do it all day long when you don’t like someone else’s opinion. Too bad for you. And I didn’t POST to YOU the other day. YOU posted to MY post. So, back off.
BJ,
What’s funny, is you sound just as insane as the far right religious people you dislike. How can you expect tolerance when you obviously aren’t a tolerant person? I’m as afraid of you as I am of them.
I agree about Steinem – just please don’t generalize. I’m from the second wave (or so I’ve been told, we didn’t have “names” for it, that’s a more recent development!), and this election has changed me. My ideas about democrats, about my own party identification, and about feminism, has all been evolving since the dems started bashing Hillary.
Not all of us “old bitties” are backwards and rigid… I’m right here with you.
I don’t believe in our original formulations, but I also don’t believe in all the “post feminist” stuff. Post feminists got nothing done. (guess I’M generalizing now!)
Of course I don’t generalize to ANYONE other than the group of mongrels who have made me wish I had a penis. I have never seen anything so mean spirited in my life and it has shaken me to my core. Steinem and all of them should be ousted from ANY discussions of “feminism.” If you are right here with all of us then you’re not an “old biddie” silly. You’re a cool, fresh new face of feminism like Palin too!
Gloria is getting old……
Yes, I have looked up to Steinem for decades. But then she helped torpedo Sarah Palin for some dissimilar social views. I don’t bother with her any more – or the other “leading feminists.”
Periodically, when ‘feminists’ are feeling down…they may write frenzied diatribes against strong, honest women – this is an attempt to conceal their rabid contempt for their own kind.
And besides, Barack the bamboozling misogynist gives them the warm *fuzzies*.
their own kind ? lumping all “feminists” together? I see you’re an expert in the field eh?
cough cough..
Let me ask you this “BJ” (perfect name) ROFLMAO…
What day do you Obots pick up those ragingly large paychecks?
You make “liberal” a dirty word.
Agreed. I have many friends who consider themselves liberal, empowered, feminist women. These are the same folks who, just MONTHS ago, during the primaries, were so excited about having a woman president and talked a lot about what having a woman in the White House would be like. They gave every indication that this was important to them.
But what is their reaction to Sarah Palin? Completely negative. They really didn’t give her much of a chance. Suddenly, all of that rhetoric about having a women in the White House went out the window, as if it never mattered. They all supported Obama without giving it a second thought. It’s been very frustrating for me, and I don’t really understand it. But I think that even a small improvement in Mccain’s share of the women’s vote might have changed the oucome of the election. It’s a shame.
I think perhaps the huge negative reaction that Palin got from the faux old feminists was the fact that it was the Republicans who had a viable candidate.
The democrats have conned women for years — the dems claimed to be the ONLY party for women — they would look after us. Then they teased us with Hillary Clinton — I now believe that they allowed her to go as far as she did — NOT believing that she would do as well as she did — in fact Hillary Clinton would have won — if the DNC hadn’t already selected Barry. The DNC never considered for a minute that a women could win — they believe that only a penis can win. But Hillary shocked the sexist pigs and then boom-bam — Palin shocks them again.
Then McCain chooses Palin — and the reaction from the faux feminist was rage — HOW COULD HE DO THAT — HOW DARE HE! Perhaps the faux old feminists like to be the victims and hell who is going to read their damned books if women really can be elected???
Then we see the lies — flat out lying — the media was in on the game. Palin’s interviews were snipped here and there — showing her answering different questions on tape then she was asked in reality. The media presented her as a bimbo– as an extremist.
Then the old faux feminists jumped in — women’s groups, organizations (probably for a pay-off) came out and endorsed the penis (oh how original).
———
Obama took on the role of the old anti-feminists that the old feminists have been battling — he was the misogynist. However he wasn’t a Republican — so for some reason he got away with being a chauvinist pig. Or this faux old feminists are so used to sexist pig democrat males — that they really did not even see or hear anything wrong with yet another chauvinist pig democrat.
Suddenly there were no anti-feminists in the Republican party — but the old faux feminists, not noticing that their guy had flip flopped and he was doing the BRO before HO pony trick.
Now we have Palin (Super Woman) who is everything that the faux old feminists used to tell us women was within our reach — BUT ONLY if were were liberal feminists.
But Palin isn’t a liberal feminists — so a whole lot of faux old feminist heads started exploding — and no one can think rationally when their brain cells are all over the room. It takes time to pick up the dripping brain cells and to stuff them back in the brain hole.
However, us new feminists know that we need feminists in both parties in the US — and that we need feminist everywhere in the world to make any difference in the lives of millions and millions of women and children.
As Uppity Woman told us when O-zero was in Afghanistan two women were executed — oh — because they were women — and perhaps some males wanted to show off in front of the US media? Did Obama say anything about the murder of these women?? Palin would have said something — she knows — and Hillary would have said something. But Obama was silent. I predict that this silence about the ongoing murder of women is how Obama will deal with this issue.
WE know that Palin is the real deal — but the faux old feminist are so out of touch with the real world — the world filled with working women who don’t have time to write and read books filled with THEORY and whatever — that they didn’t realize that they are still back in the last century.
Men know Palin is the real deal –except the men who were fooled by the media and those who have had that damned kool-aid.
By the way — Mrs. O — is just another woman hating woman. So I’ll enjoy making fun of her bad taste (she has no sense of aesthetics or style — she has no innate sense of style).
Welcome to the land of the self loathing, self denigrating Femi-Nazi’s! Where no woman can do any right unless she first bows to and then kisses the fat bulbous asses of the pseudo-intellectuals falsely claiming to be feminists.
http://www.now.org/actionct.html
Anyone itching to write to NOW? I did, just a respectful note telling them how much they suck.
I loved being at the rally for Palin in Carson, CA and seeing Shelley Mandel, from the LA Chapter of NOW, introduce Palin and say “This is what a FEMINIST looks like.” She called her “sister” and they hugged. THAT is what this should be about. WOMEN reaching ACROSS PARTY LINES to embrace and bond. Shelley took undue CRAP from the Coven, like Steinem, for doing it. Oh well.
Yay for LA, wish I could have been there. I saw a little of it on the news but you had to really pay attention or you’d miss it. GOOD FOR MANDEL.
NONE of them came out to support Hillary that I know of. Really disgusting.
That moment with Mandel made me cry. They didn’t just “air kiss” or give a “fleeting” hug. They stood their embracing and you could feel this incredible WOMAN POWER. A Liberal Democrat took on her own party and her own affiliation with NOW to get on stage and embrace a Conservative Republican. BECAUSE there is a bigger fight for ALL OF US than ABORTION. As we have seen with OVomit. We have to start bonding and unifying or what happened this year will never stop happening.
hear, hear.
The National NOW PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton very early on and asked NOW members to support her candidacy. President Kim Gandy made several appearances on Senator Clinton’s behalf. I know you’re angry with the NOW PAC’s endorsement, so am I (and I’m a NOW member), but let’s get the facts straight. Many NOW members worked very hard for Hillary and made many donations, and many stood up and with her in her historic candidacy which was usurped by “That One.”
Snickers…I respect everyone’s opinion on issues, I respect people’s right to vote for any candidate they choose (other than OVomit because he’s just too dangerous to my well being). And if people want to be NOW advocates, fine. For me, I will NOT support ANY group that advocates the BASHING of ANY woman. I am hoping that groups like New Agenda will do away with the vicious “feminist” groups and take over as the voice of positive movement for women, ALL WOMEN, not just the ones that are approved by an elitist group of vultures.
I wrote to them during the whole “effigy” deal out in West Hollywood. I asked them if they cared to comment on it, as it was a national news story. I had scoured their site, looking for some mention of it. Nothing. And I got no response to my e-mail.
Good for you for trying. I didn’t hear one word of public/media outrage on that, either, from NOW or any other organization. It’s like waking up in 1950.
We don’t even need to speculate what would happen if that had been The One instead of Palin.
I wrote to the LA chapter and the Hollywood chapter of NOW regarding the effigy. The Hollywood Chapter president did respond to me. She said that they too were outraged about the effigy and that they had a statement for the media but couldn’t get any media to publish their statement! The Hollywood chapter also contacted the residents of the house and “artist” asking them to take it down and had contacted city officials in W. Holllywood. I also called the W. Hollywood city council and left a long message w/ a patient young man. He said they had rec’d calls from all over the country.
Media management, nice. Thanks for trying. It sounds like NOW in LA and Hollywood should start NOAW, the National Org for ALL Women. Just another reason to love LA.
What really irritates me?
How about this T-Shirt?
Obama is a N***ger?
Well..
Then why was
Palin is a C**t okay?
Can someone please explain WHY people were so PROUD to wear a t-shirt that calls a woman basically the worst name you can ever use? But, the rest of us would be in jail for hate crimes for wearing the Obama shirt of the SAME nature?
I’m still angry about that shirt. It was so stunning to see a teenage GIRL wearing it. Wow.
And I’m sure you meant that in the best and nicest possible way! LOL.
Yeah, I think they need some feedback. I haven’t ever identified with them…as in what have you done for me lately? Nada. I’ve pretty much been on my own.
AnnieC, I have been a feminist all my adult life and have been a NOW member for decades. I have lobbied and worked to keep choice legal, equality for all minorities (including lesbians/gays) and worked on eliminating domestic violence, etc., etc. I have not been the only one on the scene. Many NOW members have worked unceasingly and diligently to safeguard all women’s rights. This election brought out the lack of equal treatment and put it center stage. However, during the long years when NOW (chapters, states, and national levels) worked on these issues (and might I just say Kim Gandy has done more for women than many, many others, despite the recent National NOW PAC endorsement) we were lacking activists, money, and support. When I tried to recruit volunteers to work on specific issues or raise money I met with a lot of blank stares and “no I’m too busy.” If this election has taught us anything, it should have taught us that women’s rights and perhaps the ERA need to be center stage again and all us who post here, might think of donating their time to NOW (despite this eggregious error of support this election) or other groups.
Larry and Susan: I have seen a lot of anti-NOW sentiment here, how about an article/post that is pro NOW.
thanks great post.
sara is on Larry King.
These so called feminists never want a woman to succeed. How would they be able to whine about discrimination. Not to mention the endless books they write.
Yep, they’ve always had a very elite club. Just the sort of women I used to hate in HS cliques.
sorry, “sorts of”
OT:
ther is a law suit developing in NJ about the natural born citizen status of Obama.
follow it here:
http://www.blogtext.org/naturalborncitizen/
And ten years from now, any fool with a filing fee will still be filing lawsuits.
Some “fool” with a filing fee got “separate but equal” (Brown v. Board of Education) overturned.
You rock Galt.
How about some Comfort Food?
How about a sliver of tiramisu?
LOL Galt. I’ll take whatever’s on the menu tonight.
If you were a troll I’d feed you some of my crow pizza or a nice slice of humble pie.
Tonight is also sugar buzz night. Desserts a plenty!
Tonight’s specials:
The Baby Opampers: Thin crust (like his skin) pizza with pablum (like his trolls have been lapping up).
The Angry Michelle: Deep (resentment) dish pizza with Reverend Wright toppings of roast garlic nose, government invented HIV virus and black (liberation theology) olives.
Could I by any chance get:
God Damn America Burger with Cheese
Biden Hair Plug Fries
Barry Sotero Purple Soda
Some Meechelle Fat Back
Sorry, don’t have those but how about just a small pizza with black (liberation theology) olives? They are organic.
Pizza with Black Olives is my FAVE. How did you know
I’m just an amazing freaking psychic genius?
Be careful though, after you eat the pizza you might start ranting about reparations and what not.
I rant about reparations already. I mean, when is my mortgage getting paid and why did I have to buy my own gas today? WTF?
Yeah that’s right I forgot. Your ancestors were slaves with Spartacus in Rome. I’ll have Emperor OBonaparte make out a check right away.
Whew. I felt left out there for a moment. Slaves are slaves and I want my cash.
Great post–Thanks! We have work to do.
Too many women latched onto abortion as their “issue.” They didn’t understand that “pro-choice” is just that…a choice…which DOES NOT work for everyone. They also like to hide behind those words “pro choice” while advocating to end the death penalty. Irony can be such a bitch, ya know?
Yep, the Dem Party has (had) women running after a carrot that’s standing still. Abortion rights aren’t going anywhere in our lifetime.
Not sure why it’s such an issue. If ya don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one. Jeezus. It’s like gay marriage. If you don’t want to marry or be with someone of your own sex, forgodsakes don’t. I am WEARY of the moralizing and hypocrisy. SIGH.
looks like you’re right on the abortion; they’ve tried to ban it twice here in SD and it failed both times. if they can’t ban it here, where can they?
that is a half truth.. you know that that issue has come up in many groups and it’s not just the feminists or anyone who believes in abortion rights, who has been confronted with this hypocrisy.. and some have taken it on with caring thought asto how they want to relate on that issue.
you can’t lay that strictly on these so called “feminist” you are all insanely trying to demoralize..
there is the christian right, the republican die hards who are 100% against abortion yet firmly believe in the death penalty..
how is that any different?
I can give you one big argument WHY the death penalty and abortion are really different issues. But it might be too complex for your little brain.
1) If someone is a serial killer, and you execute them, then they probably aren’t going to go from murder number 42 to number 43 any time soon.
2) How dare you compare aborting a healthy, viable fetus to punishing someone for taking another life? Wow that’s really smart.
I am pro-choice by the way. AND pro death penalty. My own experience working with the DA when I was pre-law at USC was the heartbreak of seeing OVER AND OVER again murderers and rapists go to jail, get out, and murder and rape again. Would you like your own child to be the VICTIM of a murderer or rapist who the liberals didn’t want to execute or keep in prison? Hmmm…Well it happened to someone close to me. A man who was convicted of murder in Tennessee, was let out, came to St. Louis and murdered a woman, slit her 8 year old’s throat and rammed a knife up her 5 year old’s vagina. Guess that guy can be rehabilitated. Sad that people like you sympathize with the criminal and not the fetus. The man should have been executed the first time. You don’t get to live in a society unless you obey the law. Prisons have an 87% recidivism rate. I’m tired of people letting these criminals walk among us.
Wow,you really need to get more rest and less coffee.
say it, OIAF.
Some of my friends look at me like I’m a moron when I respond to “But we’re still pro-choice, right?” and I answer: “Yes, even Sarah Palin’s choice.” I can’t understand what they think “choice” is.
To many on the far left, the rights of minorities trump the rights of women. Thus, they saw Bobo’s quest as so important that Hillary and then Sarah were seen as getting in his way. And we need to face the fact that many men see self-described feminists as anti-male, lesbian-leaning harpies who deny that males are physically stronger and usually better at some things than females are. Some of these women (and men of their philosophical persuasion) really do believe in gender leveling and the refusal to accept age-old beliefs such as the maintenance that there’s a difference between a mother and father. These folks were particularly taken aback by pretty, feminine Palin and her five kids and macho hubby. Plus, she’s a hillbilly and a fundamentalist Christian, which, to them, is beyond the pale.
Interesting how most on the left (which I used to side with until they drank koolaid) have become more intolerant. The hypocrisy is astounding. But your explanation does bring some clarity.
Well-expressed and well-written!
The only silver lining for what happened to women during this election would be a Feminism 2.0 movement, and after 20 years of stagnation on womens issues, we are long overdue.
more like 30-40 yrs stagnation-
whatever year it was that the ERA was voted down, fought against by those who tried (and succeeded) in making the public believe that if the ERA were passed that we’d all be sharing public bathrooms and public dressing rooms (men and women together)-
anyone around who remembers that tactic?
Yep, I remember that tactic well. And the defeat of the ERA was as much a travesty as this election.
I don’t think the ERA going down was a loss for women. The ERA would have invalidated the Hyde Amendment and mandated taxpayer-funding of abortions. Something not all women would support. The ERA would have forced that women be drafted for military service, just like men,if there was a military draft. (I prefer what we have now, where we have a volunteer military). Under the ERA, the result almost certainly would have been that all religious schools run by churches and synagogues that did not, or do not ordain women, or which treat men and women differently, would lose their tax exemption. It would have put at risk the tax exemption of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish schools all over the country. To some that might seem perfectly fine, but women are free to choose to belong to those religious institutions. I freely belong to my evangelical church. I accept the precepts and I can tell you, women have very powerful and influential roles in my church, but the Government isn’t dictating how that power is adjudicated, and I can asure you no one in my church would ever wish harm to a candidate, or wear a defaming obsene T-shirt to make a statement. And members I spoke to in private, prayed that Sarah would get elected, because she seemed a person of character and integrity, and she respected life.
We don’t need the ERA, which would have given Government more power over our individual lives. I personally am grateful to Phyllis Schafly for leading the charge on that defeat. She is a feminist too. She was a mom of little kids but she took on a national campaign,and she did it. WE have all the power we need, vested in us, in the Constitution. What we need is to coalese to assert our power.
I hope we will act as a group, a chorus, as another sister says, and stand up together, to sexism and misogyny where it happens, in media and political parties, against powerful women.
Next time, we would drive from all over the country, to West Hollywood and shut down traffic, with families of supporters demanding the effigy of Palin be taken down from the noose.
sorry, not buying. if equal rights regardless of gender is not a fundamental principle in this country, what is?
Have you READ the text of the ERA? Rosa? I fail to see what is so scary about these simple words:
That’s it. That’s the entire text.
Amazing observations. Thank you, Artemis, for this wonderful article.
This is an issue and a debate that must be had continually. Something very ugly that many pretended was passed has now been exposed.
After the travesty of this election year, we would all be very remiss if we did not become the Greek Chorus to continue to expose this situation, and in so doing, wage war against it.
“If you can’t walk away from the table, you have no bargaining power. If you have no alternatives, you will get nothing but crumbs.”
Good lines.
Why not wide support for Palin among women in the US? Because despite all the supposed advancement of Am. women, the reality is that they are trapped in a psychological prison, and each cell holds an image of what a woman is. Their self identity is gotten from Madison Ave. and Hollywood….they are controlled for all the free they think they are. Controlled, like in Iran, but insidious, no moral police with clubs just images against which to fall short. And for feminists, who are probably in high security prison psychologically, any woman not made in their image is reason for annihilation. Women attacking women ends up being like a prison riot. All prisoners, but in the feeble attempt to get some control in a world in which they have little, they form groups and turn on each other.
But, I’m not going to bash feminists, because of their struggle (and men who joined or supported them) I don’t get physically clubbed by a moral police.
Artemis, I absolutely agree with your take. My revelation came the day after Hillary Clinton conceded. Gloria Steinam appeared on the Today Show and said in a very casual manner that she never believed that Hillary could or would win the nomination. Why?
Because she’s a woman.
In that single moment, the scales fell from my eyes. This is not feminism. This is some sort of perverted “we support women only when they’re winning, only when their successes prop up our own issues/agenda.” And then, the banshee wail over Palin began. It’s downright disgusting. Here, I thought the feminist ideal included “all” women. How silly of me.
And now? It’s perfectly clear. Feminism only includes the “right” women, those who demonstrate right thinking, come from the right schools and please, haven’t a tinge of unacceptable accents or attitudes.
Faux feminism. We’re better off without it!
To coin a phrase: there’s a special kind of Hell for women who fail to support other women.
Am I angry? You betcha.
I eagerly await the piece extolling the virtues of Phyllis Schlafly and Ann Coulter. Dipshits.
Their virtue is that they speak out, and they are not afraid of the Left. They are as indispensible to a democracy as those you agree with.
Thank you for intelligently explaining to Jorsh what a Democracy is all about and the importance of EVERY voice.
The trolls latest assignment is to get any remaining dissenters to join in their group-think. I will never join their OBorg collective.
A lot of the bots are already disillusioned with The One. I think that’s why the still- kool-aid intoxicated are still around – they’re threatened as hell.
Just like you eagerly awaited the release of Guitar Hero World Tour?
Your derangement is showing. Fly back to the mothership. The natives here are clearly not buying the bullshit!
Marshall Applewhite of the infamous Heaven’s Gate cult awaits!
I don’t think you will see any extolling of virtues on those two. They are the polar opposite of the Old NOW Guard.
You’re hanging out in a blog that you don’t like. Who’s the dipshit? lol
I’ll tell you what a woman like Palin brings to office, a lot of common sense and absolutely no nonsense. Resistance to these virtues by some women has to be very deep-seated.
Culturally, we just don’t band together. We need to change that.
Our “leaders” have been practicing divide and conquer for generations so don’t expect any banding together to happen too quickly. And then there is the problem of those who band together after a short time forgetting why they banded together to begin with.
Running the country requires a lot more than common sense. She has exactly the right qualities for her current job – and absolutely none for the one she was running for. After that hideous prnk phone call, can you imagine her being let loose on foreign leaders. It was excrutiating – she was flirting with him.
This is my first time to post a comment here but I have been a constant reader since the primaries. I am not from the US, but I took my graduate studies there through fellowships granted by the university I went to. I have always been very deeply grateful for that to the university and to America.
I have been so concerned for America by what had happened during the primaries and the election, so distressed to see how dishonesty and fraud overwhelmed the election process.
Even though there must be different reasons for the vicious lies and attacks thrown at Sarah Palin, I think the intent to destroy her by any means by the Obama side was the main reason it happened. She was the main threat to his campaign and with the help of the unbelievably biased media, the Obama side cold-bloodedly smeared and lied about her to destroy her.
I get frustrated everytime an opportunity to point this out is missed. I wish Governor Palin herself said that when she was asked about it by Greta in her show a few days ago.
I pray for America every day. Please, Noquarter, continue to be vigilant.
Thanks so much for your kind words and TRUTH. Kindness and truth have no borders so please keep contributing!
We are all devastated as to what has happened and will carry on!
Thank you for your kindness and prayers for America. We’re ALL praying. This is not a good time for our country and some of us are very sad about what is to come with the horrors of an Obama administration.
To be clear, he is Plasticine-elect Obama.
A reminder of Camille Paglia’s words about Palin…
Given that Obama had served on a Chicago board with Ayers and approved funding of a leftist educational project sponsored by Ayers, one might think that the unrepentant Ayers-Dohrn couple might be of some interest to the national media. But no, reporters have been too busy playing mini-badminton with every random spitball about Sarah Palin, who has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamation merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.
How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don’t know their asses from their elbows.
Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology — contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.
I like Sarah Palin, and I’ve heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is — and quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn’t speak the King’s English — big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns — that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.
As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee — what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry’s nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama’s pick and who was on everyone’s short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin’s. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.
The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan — nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching. No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit, as Richard Nixon did in his long haul back from political limbo following his California gubernatorial defeat in 1962. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is.
i used to like camille paglia way back when, but then she went completely off the rails, ann coulter style. she does seem to have come back to her senses with the above piece, though.
I find it ironic that we as a nation work world wide to try and bring freedom to women of all nations, educate them, help them become self-sufficient, give them self-esteem; yet we show to the world the stark picture that our own women are denigrated and vilified for trying to achieve success. How can the women of the world trust us if we eat our own?
Well said.
Exactly, RebelCarol. How can we export equality, when we don’t have it to begin with?
A collection of posts about women’s reactions to Sarah Palin.
http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=1703
Basic sum-up: Palin proves that the story those ‘feminists’ have been paddling might be wrong (just as BObo’s election proves the whole ‘I can’t because THEY’re racists’ is, too put it mildly, doubtful) so they try to ‘kill’ the messenger.
Perhaps due to to our cultural predisposition to bluntness, ‘feminists’ over here blatantly stated on TV that Palin “was against abortion” (yes they used this term) and so “couldn’t be a feminist”. In the leading magazine “Opzij” they bashed her further on this (including allowing Trig to live) yet gave Naomi Wolf’s insane rant on the US (apparently never heard of today’s Russia, let alone open dictatorships) a full three pages.
I’m not too familiar with American feminists’ backgrounds but over here they were/are – to coin Monty Python – basically upper-class twits (they eg lamented ‘that women are not allowed to work’ while it took well-into the sixties before working-class families finally made enough money NOT to need two factory-jobs just to make ends meet). They endlessly rant on how wonderful it is ‘to better oneself thru work’ even when not-college educated women for a large part end up working behind the supermarket-till etc. and how women should be forced to work more hours ‘because it helps their development’. Right. Humans only exist to work. How positively Marxist.
Obama Bought The Presidency
Love this piece. Thanks Artemis.
Yes, we’re a great example to the rest of the world! If you don’t buy into the PC notion of the feminine ideal, you’re left wide open to any and all scorn and humilation.
And how is this different from being rejected by society wa-a-ay before the women’s movement if you found yourself pregnant? Oh, that’s right. Abortion on demand, which of course means abortion in all instances. How dare Sarah Palin carry a Down’s Syndrome child to term? How dare she question the basic tenants of liberal theology? How dare she?!
Well, how dare Barack Obama vote against a live abortion bill? How dare he and his minions try to spin and make excuses for a vote that was clearly immoral and unethical by any standard. In fact, it was downright disgusting.
I know, it’s over his pay grade.
BTW, I believe in a woman’s right to determine her own biological destiny. But every right comes with responsibility. You abuse it, you lose it. And discarding a late-term abortion as if it were a piece of garbage is setting the stage for a monumental loss in the future.
We’ve merely traded one kind of collar for another. Only now, the leash is held by the ultra-liberal crowd, many of them women.
Shame on them all!
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin continues working on her career. I’ll betcha ya she recognizes the men and women that are supportive of her goals. Kick me in the ass and what do think I’m going to do, show my support for you ? Sarah doesn’t need help from feminist who do nothing but bash a self made woman.
What is all this, “voted for him because he has a penis” ? I have one, I’m self employed, a veteran, a father. I know if you don’t just go out there and do it, it won’t happen for you. People recognize the difference between affimative action
and real action. Real action people get more done. Stop whining girls, Sarah is the proof.
Very good article. I have had a hard time defining my feelings about Sarah Palin and I appreciate someone else taking a crack at it. I have been outraged by the old time feminists who have trashed and lied about this woman. Talk about knock them out of their comfort zones!! She sure did and they can’t take it! But if you want to effect real change, you MUST climb out of your comfort zone and hopefully, these women will come to realize this. If they don’t, they are never going to have any real growth of character.
Ditto!
Thank you for this very thoughtful essay, Artemis March. I look forward to you next one. I had forgotten that women are excluded from hate crimes protection. We have a hate crimes situation here in NC that I am watching closely. My bullshit detector has been beeping intermittently. May post more on the next open thread.
Excellent article! I am sick of people–especially women–with personal agendas masquerading as feminists.
One of my favorite movies, THE COLOR PURPLE, has a scene where the character played by Whoopie Goldberg is questioned by her son-in-law who wants to know what to do about his obstreperous wife, played by Oprah Winfrey. He loves her but can’t control her. Whoopie has the answer……”Beat her”. That’s what feminists have become. “Intellectual” Cameleons who talk freedom but want to squash you like a bug if you step out of line, be yourself, be true to your beliefs. They will beat you down if you don’t fit into their categories and boxes. Palin’s and Hillary’s most vociferous, hate-filled adversaries turned out to be women who consider themselves “feminists”.
Many so-called feminists were just that…so-called!
The real focus was always on driving THEIR agenda, not necessarily the betterment of opportunity for all women.
Their support for Senator Clinton was luke-warm, and always leaving the door cracked to get back in that one’s good graces.
Were they promoting women, or only Democratic women?
That answer is obvious!
B. Hussein Obamas civilian police force?
This is as UN American as it gets!
Will Bill Ayers, Jessie Jackson and Rev Sharpton be in charge of these units?
Real Americans will not stand for this fascism!
There will be rioting in the streets!
Fascism is anti-feminist. Check out this..
There are 14 defining attributes of fascism:
1.) Powerful and Continuing Nationalism:
2.) Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights:
3.) Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause:
4.) Supremacy of the Military
5.) Rampant Sexism
6.) Controlled Mass Media
7.) Obsession with National Security
8.) Religion and Government are Intertwined
9.) Corporate Power is Protected
10.) Labor Power is Suppressed
11.) Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12.) Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13.) Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14.) Fraudulent Elections