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October 09, 2008
Identifying why Perpetually Angry Handmaidens of the Left (aka "Feminists") seeth at Sarah
The hysterical emotionalism and eruptions of amoral malice at the arrival of Sarah Palin exposed the weaknesses and limitations of current feminism. But I am convinced that Palin’s bracing mix of male and female voices, as well as her grounding in frontier grit and audacity, will prove to be a galvanizing influence on aspiring Democratic women politicians too, from the municipal level on up. Palin has shown a brand-new way of defining female ambition — without losing femininity, spontaneity or humor. She’s no pre-programmed wonk of the backstage Hillary Clinton school; she’s pugnacious and self-created, the product of no educational or political elite — which is why her outsider style has been so hard for media lemmings to comprehend.Paglia publishes and comments on several letters she has received from women who feel they have been ignored or dismissed by second wave feminists. Regardless of independence, accomplishment or choice, women like Gov. Palin don't fit into the tiny tent that is contemporary boutique feminism - pro-abortion, anti-family, anti-marriage, anti-capitalist, anti-personal responsibility - and therefore, "inauthentic women".
As Jeff Goldstein states
Sarah Palin, for her part, represents feminism as it should be, and it’s refreshing that an academic feminist like Paglia is so comfortable in her own skin that she is willing not only to admit as much, but to literally praise it. Palin is comfortable in her role as politician and mother. She is unafraid to speak her mind and demand to be taken seriously. In fact, she truly believes that she should be taken seriously on the basis of her ideas, not merely as a concession to her sex.The derision heaped on "inauthentic women" has been described from time to time as "Mommy Wars", as if it were confined merely to working women v stay-at-home women. Yet the huge, positive reaction to Palin - something that confuses and angers boutique feminists - exposes to a wider audience that the "inauthentic woman" is indeed the foundational base of feminism and that we are tired of being ignored or derided.She is an individual who happens to be a woman; her beliefs are her own, and — far than suffering from “false consciousness” — she is settled in her convictions, as they are formed in equal parts by her sex, her faith, her upbringing, her political ideology, and her own thinking on issues. In short, she is the perfect feminist because she is the perfect individual — one who sees her sex neither as a stumbling block nor a card to be played when the game needs leveraging.
Feminism isn't a public adherence to an imposed list of issues. Feminism isn't or shouldn't be an external movement. Feminism is really the internalized, self-realization of women as their own worth as individuals and finding their own fulfillment via their own personal choices, freely entered into.
Boutique feminism rejects marriage/children/capitalism because that interfers with the basic goal of the Left ... that an individual's primary relationship should be with the State, not with God or Spouse or Child.
Posted by Darleen at October 9, 2008 05:59 AM
Comments
So dumb. Sarah Palin isn't a feminist because she doesn't hold any feminist views. You can't put Dick Cheney in a skirt and give him ovaries and call it feminist. Good to see the right wing embracing the identity politics they pretend to deplore.
Posted by: Josh at October 9, 2008 07:31 AM
Plus Palin is a complete idiot. She's worse than Dan Quayle. She can't even use proper grammar.
As President she'd be a laughingstock and fucking nightmare.
Posted by: Brad at October 9, 2008 02:16 PM
Josh
Just because you believe pro-abortion is the one thing that makes a "feminist" doesn't make it so.
Brad is just being an elitist sexist, but that's what comes from boutique Leftists.
Posted by: Darleen at October 9, 2008 05:03 PM
Several things make one a feminist. Feminism is set of political beliefs and to be a feminist you have to hold to some combination of those beliefs to varying degrees or you render the term meaningless. And of course, rendering the term meaningless is your goal here. If Sarah Palin can be a feminist then anyone can.
And Sarah Palin does appear pretty ignorant for someone who wants to be high up in the federal government. She should take a decade to learn some basic facts about American government and history and then try again. At any rate her appeal is basically limited to the 30% nut fringe of the GOP base so this is probably the highest she'll ever get politically.
Posted by: Josh at October 9, 2008 06:03 PM
Also you may want to correct the spelling of seethe in the title.
Posted by: Josh at October 9, 2008 06:03 PM
Boutique feminism rejects marriage/children/capitalism because that interfers with the basic goal of the Left ... that an individual's primary relationship should be with the State, not with God or Spouse or Child.
Darlene, do you even realize you are a caricature of a rigid ideologue? Reading this, the first thing that pops into my head is that you can't be for real. Second thought is ... What the Fuck?
I stayed at home until my youngest son was 10 years old, was the class mom and the girl scout leader and chaperoned the school trips for years. Today I have a daughter and three big sons who all consider themselves feminists. It's true we're all pro choice, but we're not anti-family (my family is my life), not anti-capitalist (all gainfully employed in the private sector), not anti-marriage (25 years next month) and not anti-personal responsibility (A-1 credit rating, if that's a good measure). So...I repeat...what the fuck are you talking about? Have you ever met any non-ideologues or do you interpret the world strictly through dogma and demagoguery?
Sarah Palin was chosen for ONE reason - her vagina. That's it. She personifies gender politics. Forget about feminism. She has no ideas of any kind. She is of less than mediocre intelligence. She is the ultimate Affirmative Action candidate. Plus she's willing to exploit her children for political gain. Republican jackpot!
And as for being pro-family, neither my husband nor I would have considered taking on massive new responsibilities during the first year of any of our baby's lives. We would have chopped our arms off rather than expose our teenage daughter to national ridicule like the Palins have. As for being pro-capitalist, what's with Alaska being the biggest recipient of federal welfare, a veritable sink hole of our federal tax dollars? Pro personal responsibility? Is that why she's running from the investigation into her unethical behavior in firing WALT MONEGAN (not Wooten, try and focus) for failing to unlawfully carry out her family's vendetta?
It's funny to hear you referring to the "angry handmaidens", when this blog fairly seethes and smokes with your hatred for your fellow Americans. (Plus the handmaiden reference is just plain weird.) I'm really not sure what your problem is with this "authentic woman" nonsense, but it really seems like one more way that you need to create an artificial US/THEM dynamic to keep yourself energized. Basically the country is rejecting Palin (lowest favorability ratings of any of the 4 running and a huge turn off to other women) not because she's a woman, but because she's stupid, mean spirited and terrifyingly unqualified.
Posted by: Leah at October 9, 2008 06:10 PM
The issue here isn't feminism at all but the sickening anti-intellectualism of the modern Republican party. David Brooks sums it up quite well in today's column:
But over the past few decades, the Republican Party has driven away people who live in cities, in highly educated regions and on the coasts. This expulsion has had many causes. But the big one is this: Republican political tacticians decided to mobilize their coalition with a form of social class warfare. ....What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole.
Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite. She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all — men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch.And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away.
Darleen wants to try and shove this election into her ideological boxes but it's not going to fit. The problem with Palin is she's part of a movement that disdains intelligence and knowledge. They encourage the kind of rabid hatred for others that, if they don't watch out, is going to result in violence one of these days.
Although Palin was nominated as the ultimate in Affirmative Action gender politics, she's going to lose because America just can't afford any more government by ignorance.
Posted by: Leah at October 10, 2008 04:18 AM
the first thing that pops into my head is that you can't be for real. Second thought is ... What the Fuck?
Now that's some higher-order thinkin' there.
"My third thought is ... LOOK, BUNNIES!"
Posted by: Cowboy at October 14, 2008 03:08 AM
[Ignoring what is sure to be more intellectually dishonest ravings from Leah and Josh...I don't waste my time arguing with irrational kooks, as they've exposed themselves to be in other comments.]
Darleen, did you see Naomi Wolf wrote at the godforsaken HuffPo about Sarah Palin? (Today, I think.)
Ms. Uberfeminist (not!) called Palin "Franken-Barbie." Irony! hahahaha
(No, I didn't read it either, and won't - I told you, I hate reading blogs now because libs just irritate me, and I prefer to be at peace. I heard about it on teevee and she was called out for using sexist rhetoric and holding SP to different standards. LOL!)
Posted by: Beth at October 14, 2008 04:19 PM