Smart Piece on Sarah Palin and Femninists

Much of it has been said before, but it's still good.

Two passages I thought were especially good:

The feminist revolution began as a necessary reform movement, but unfortunately evolved into a marxism-imbued, revolutionary one. Second-wave feminism’s focus soon shifted from women’s equal rights (which are limited to those defined by law) to women’s interests (which are limitless), as perceived through a victim’s lens.

"(which are limitless)" -- spot on. The line of demarcation is between a movement dedicated to removing unfair impediments to women's freedom to general interest-group agitation for special pleas. At some point feminism because simply a Teachers' Union about women, women's complaints, women's desire to make more money, etc.

At this point, feminism is chiefly a guild interested in securing advantage for its members at the disadvantage of its non-members, and can and should then be treated as such by non-members. Just as non-teachers are right to stand against teachers' special pleadings, non-feminists generally are right to stand against the new class of Professional Woman -- by which I mean not a woman who is a professional, but a woman whose actual profession is being a woman. Every profession, they say, is a conspiracy against the laity.

Feminists watching Palin’s stunning performance knew a stake was being driven through their movement’s heart. They went ballistic. Feminist blogger Jessica Grose wrote on her Jezebel web site: “When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded … What I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay murderous, rage.” Judith Warner wrote in The New York Times that Palin was an “insult to women.” Comedian Sandra Bernhard riffed on YouTube: “Turncoat bitch! You whore in your cheap f***ing … cheap-ass plastic glasses.” Academic Wendy Doniger opined, “Palin’s greatest hypocrisy is her pretense that she is a woman.”

And who can forget Canada’s very own Heather Mallick — then of the CBC, now of the Toronto Star — who watched Palin with “my mouth open, my eyeballs drying out, my hand making shaky notes.” From those “shaky notes” emerged a stomach-turning attack on Palin’s “pram-face” daughter, Bristol, followed by the advice: “Turn your guns on [Bristol’s boyfriend] Levi, ma’am.” (And liberals say conservative discourse encourages violence!)

She goes on about Palin shaking feminists by presenting a different ideal, an idea that others have noted.

And as I always note: Yes, that's true, but liberal men were just as aghast at this performance. Sarah Palin committed two crimes that night: She spoke of Obama as if he were not, in fact, an earthbound god, but an unqualifed, shady pretender, a figure not ripe for worship but for lampooning; and therefore she threatened the chances of a liberal winning the White House.

It has to be remembered that before her speech, Obama won every poll, easily; it was no an election so much as a coronation. After that speech, at least for two weeks, McCain/Palin surged ahead of Obama/Biden; she scared the shit out of them. I still think that when they see Sarah Palin, she reminds them of those weeks of terror, the same way you'll always be reminded of a death if you see the person responsible for it. It's emotionally wrenching just to be reminded that for three weeks in September and October of 2008, A God Bled.

posted by Ace at 01:29 PM

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