It’s been nearly a month since I wrote this piece in The Washington Post about Sarah Palin’s fake feminism, and I’m still seeing responses to it – some awesome, some…well, not. I’ve gotten emails calling me a jealous whore, seen articles desperate to paint anti-choice policies as somehow pro-woman, and read blog posts of conservatives furious that I would dare suggest that not just anyone can call themselves a feminist. (Who cares if she fights against other women’s rights?! She’s a woman and therefore must be a feminist!)
As fun as it would be to take on all of these responses, it’s Kathleen Parker’s most recent article – A feminism that spans from Palin to Pelosi – that I find the most interesting, and the most telling.
Like most of the other pieces that criticized my WaPo article, Parker focuses on my take-down of Palin’s anti-choice policies – bemoaning the belief that “a pro-life woman can’t really be a feminist.” I can’t say I’m surprised that so many chose to respond with the abortion/feminism debate – it’s the most salacious, and certainly the argument that will get the most attention. But it’s also pretty goddamn lazy.
Because feminists aren’t criticizing Palin and her co-opting ilk (organizations like IWF and writers like Christina Hoff Sommers) simply because of their views on choice. These faux feminists are called out as such because they fight against women’s rights across the board.
These “feminists” would cut funding to the Violence Against Women Act and fight same-sex marriage rights. They shallowly laud working moms while supporting business’ right to discriminate on the basis of gender, opposing increased funding for SCHIP and supporting cuts to the Family and Medical Leave Act. They believe that the pay gap doesn’t exist. Hell, they believe sexism doesn’t exist!
You want to have a debate about whether or not one can be pro-life and feminist? Fine. But don’t tell me that someone who makes their career trying to roll back women’s rights is a feminist. It’s fucking insulting.
But perhaps the most telling part of Parker’s column is this one line: “The reason Palin so upsets the pro-choice brigade is because she seems so content with her lot and her brood.” Because if there’s anything feminists hate, it’s a happy woman with a family? This is a sentiment I’ve seen repeated often, and it’s great – because it’s the last resort of someone who has no cogent argument to make. Feminists couldn’t possibly be upset because Palin benefits from feminism while trying to undo all of its progress – no, no, we just hate families. (Methinks someone is starting to sweat!)
Putting aside for a moment the fact that this line of reasoning is completely desperate, I have to say that part of the reason Palin and other “feminists” scare me so much is because I’m a happy woman with a family of my own, including a baby on the way. I want my daughter to grow up in a country that sees her as a full human being and has laws and policies that reflect as much – not one where politicians take her rights away and call it feminism.
If the supporters of Palin’s so-called feminism had anything of substance to say, they would have said it. Instead, they rely on played out feminists-hate-the-family narratives and controversial talking points. So for now I’m just going to sit back, relax, and watch these “feminists” frantically try to justify themselves. Something tells me American women won’t buy it.
Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr
YouTube
13 Comments
Parker lost me at her second paragraph: “Is she a “real” feminist who walks in lock step with traditional feminist orthodoxy? Or is she a faux feminist, i.e. a woman who has benefited from traditional feminism, become all that she could be, but, alas, thinks independently on certain sacred tenets of the sisterhood?” Feminist orthodoxy? Faux feminists think independently and, therefore, actual feminists don’t? Any article that opens with these questions has already demonstrated a gross misunderstanding of feminism.
Amazing post, Jess. You lay bare all of the hype surrounding this tired conversation. The basic fact is that it’s not feminist to prevent other women from living healthy lives with access to the services and opportunities they need to be happy. End of story.
I’m having a really hard time taking Kathleen Parker’s article seriously… at all. It’s laughable. Not only, like you said, does she jump straight to a baseless and inflammatory pro-choice/pro-life mindless rambling (and admit, that’s what it is — I found very little coherency in her writing and arguments… if they were arguments). She doesn’t say anything of substance and instead writes flimsy one-liners, half of which are references to herself.
No one but the women who were Palin supporters from the beginning will buy this.
Round of applause over here. You really boiled this down to the nuts and bolts. Isn’t it ironic that the same people who called out the media’s sexist treatment of Sarah Palin are the same folks who treated Hillary Clinton the same way during the election? These people are the epitome of double speak. You don’t get to make things worse for women and call yourself a feminist at the same time. Period.
As a guy I’ve always gotten very strange looks when I proclaim myself a feminist. See, I don’t think “feminist” is a title or role you get to just claim when it’s convenient. You earn it through a set of beliefs and actions to back those beliefs up. Actions that range from the complex (writing or enacting legislation) to the more simplistic (stuffing mailers or voting). These beliefs and actions aren’t limited to one sex. I have a mother, two sisters, 3 nieces, and hopefully daughters someday. I take action and believe the women in my life deserve to be treated the same way I am treated. They should get paid the same pay as I do.
To hear Palin refer to herself and her sycophants as “feminists” when they hold none of the beliefs and take none of the actions to further women’s rights makes me sick. They call themselves feminist and go against everything it stands for. I pray your articles continue to reach new ears and open more minds. Men and women alike. I’m sure there are more male feminist like myself out there.
“I’m having a really hard time taking Kathleen Parker’s article seriously… at all. It’s laughable.”
So says an earlier poster. And I totally agree. But let me tell you, I live in Idaho, great bastion of uncritical “thinking.” Many here will read that uncritically and agree, as it plays into what they want to think about the world. I often worry that many people are swayed by these lazy arguments if they’re published in major magazines & newspapers. These give them an air of legitimacy that plays right into people’s pre-concieved, externally dictated beliefs.
Thank you for this article and the last one as well, directly addressing the hypocrisy of Palin’s “sisterhood.” I’m tired of the political posing and I hope that dialogue like yours can take center stage when Palin has to answer for her policy decisions in Alaska as well as her positions on equal rights–both of which records indicate are decidedly anti-feminist.
I hope that you’re right about Americans being too smart to fall for the bait-and-switch. I’m not so sure. The political dodge that Palin and her party are engaged in is tricky–as all conservative logic is tricky–because it makes presuppositions that conservatives don’t publicly acknowledge: that the issues of poor women don’t count (immigration in Arizona, lack of national daycare, no nation-wide Head Start program for poor urban/rural families); that the concerns of women of color aren’t worth the nation’s time (remember the talk against Michelle Obama? and none of the women who have won primaries are of color but one–and only by a matter of degrees); and above all, that women have a central place in the family that legitimizes both their sexuality and public participation (see? Sarah Palin is good at her job BECAUSE she’s a mom, not in spite of it, no matter what you pro-abortionists say). The fact is, no conservative pundit is going to acknowledge these glaring inconsistencies in logic–and I’m afraid most people won’t bother to look deeper to disarm them themselves.
Which is why I think Palin is so popular in the first place. I’m going out on a limb here, but if you’re a mother who has been told that your decision (or since, let’s face it, not every woman in our country has access to abortions/counterreproductive measures, your lot) to be a mother necessarily removes your political voice because you don’t see any politically active mothers in happy families who favor abortion (that kind of a contrast would be too confusing for the media to know how to handle), you might be inclined to listen to a woman who is a mother, who is politically active, who has a strong voice. You might even listen if she called herself feminist (naughty word!) because it is after all a term of empowerment–and isn’t a woman who enters the political sphere, endures what Palin has, and still speaks her mind, empowered? Palin pays great homage to the institution of Mothering. Aren’t all mothers like her, a bit? Strong, capable, long-suffering, resourceful, vocal at times….and, yes, for all those things, perhaps feminist as well. It’s an alluring call for women, but it means that feminism ceases to be a term about structural analysis and civil disobedience (i.e. complicated) and is reduced to a buzzword with political capitol and cultural cache. This dilution of feminism is the real worry, as well as a whole host of women who would be led to think that the question of women’s rights isn’t the multifaceted concern that it really is, but reducible to a simple question of women’s roles as fetus incubators–that they have to hold a particular political view to properly be called a feminist. It would be another score for the patriarchy–double score, really, since it would show that even “liberated” women just can’t get along.
Jessica,
Just wanted to let you know that some of us are responding to your critics on this!
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100619/OPINION02/6190317/1016/OPINION/Thanks+vets
Ha. Ridiculous.
Damn good response to this article and all, but… you’re pregnant? Congratulations!
Oh come on, same-sex marriage is hardly a feminist issue.
@green Oh, right. I totally forgot that all women are straight. *rolls eyes*
@Sayna Thanks!
@BookishBeemer Great letter! I’m stoked it got published!
This is such a good response. I hate it when people are all “why doesn’t feminism include me”. I feel like someone should make them a bullet-list or a pie chart or some shit. You can’t be a feminist if you don’t support women’s rights. Thank you so much for eloquently illustrating that point!
I know this is a separate issue, but I signed up over at Feministing for an account, and I’ve received no confirmation email.