Feminists In Their Own Words
In a recent interview on the O’Reilly Factor, Laura Ingraham (subbing for Bill O’Reilly), interviewed Sally Quinn and KellyAnne Conway about the media’s obsession with Sarah Palin.
While the interview is another example of ad hominem discussions about Palin, Quinn’s quotes are very telling. Her attitude exemplifies the hypocritical standard of the modern feminist movement: you can follow the definition of a feminist, but you aren’t actually a feminist unless you hold certain political views.
SALLY QUINN, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, of course, she is a feminist. I mean, if you look at all the things you’ve just said about her, she’s a feminist. I mean, she clearly believes in equality for women.
INGRAHAM: And babies in the womb.
QUINN: And most women I know are feminists. So I think it depends on who you call feminist. I think one of the producers was saying the sort of raging crazed pro-choice liberal women. But I have to say that of all the people I know, I don’t know a single person who feels jealous about her. I think that most of the people I know who are not Sarah Palin fans just don’t like what she has to say.
Really? Palin is a feminist? Interesting. What exactly is “feminism?”
It’s a tough question. The textbook definition states that feminism is:
- the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes
- organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests
That’s rather broad. I’m all for political, economic and social equality.
Jennifer Baumgardener and Amy Richards, third wave feminists, write in Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future that:
Of course the goals of feminism are carried out by every day women themselves. Maybe you aren’t sure you need feminism, or you’re not sure it needs you. You’re sexy, a wallflower, you shop at Calvin Klein, you are a stay-at-home mom, a big Hollywood producer, a beautiful bride all in white, an ex-wife raising three kids, or you shave, pluck, and wax. In reality, feminism wants you to be whoever you are-but with a political consciousness. And, vice versa: You want to be a feminist because you want to be exactly who you are.
By that definition, most women in America, including the conservative ones would fall into the category of feminists. Perhaps third wave feminism, the looser, less militant, “do whatever makes you happy as long as you stand up for yourself” view could encompass conservative women too.
However, Baumgardener and Richards further explain:
By feminists, we mean each and every politically and socially conscious woman or man who works for equality. In reality, there is no formal alliance of women we can call “the feminists.”
Later on, they write:
Yes, all feminists deserve critique and debate, but save your political vitriol for the young babes who are right-wing and political.
Ok, so conservative women may fall within the definition of feminists, but they are still the enemy. Instead, women should be fighting for the unstated goals of feminism:
Feminism is not concerned with Band-Aids but with a radical restructuring of our society. Therefore feminist activism means figuring out how to change your life, each and every day, so that it represents your values.
So, feminism means actively fighting for issues that are important to you and viewing men and women as equal unless you’re a conservative. Then you’re hated.
What else have feminists said? Let’s take a look at what feminists said about Sarah Palin (remember, Sally Quinn claims she is a feminist).
Gloria Steinem, the matriarch of the feminist movement, told New York magazine:
You know, even if Sarah Palin was better on the issues, the goal is not to elect Superwoman. As social-justice movements have learned the hard way, having someone who looks like you and behaves like them —who looks like a friend but behaves like an adversary—is worse than having no one.
Jezebel writer Jessica explained her reaction to Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention:
When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull. And I’m not the only one! I had simultaneous IM conversations with many friends, who said things like, “she seems like a fucking monster” and “this feminist wants to murk that idiotic cunt.”
Judith Warner, in a New York Times op-ed called Palin a “thoroughgoing humiliation for America’s women.”
The Huffington Post’s Sarah Seltzer expressed, “But just because Sarah Palin is a woman doesn’t mean she’s good for women.”
While the blog Feministing applauding John McCain for picking women, writer Ann expressed:
Republicans are more open to a certain type of woman — one who is strongly against things like equal pay, universal health care, and reproductive freedom. In other words, the party is pro-woman-candidates, as long as they enact anti-woman policies.
In her article entitled, Zombie feminists of the RNC, Rebecca Traister opined in Salon:
The pro-woman rhetoric surrounding Sarah Palin’s nomination is a grotesque bastardization of everything feminism has stood for, and in my mind, more than any of the intergenerational pro- or anti-Hillary crap that people wrung their hands over during the primaries, Palin’s candidacy and the faux-feminism in which it has been wrapped are the first development that I fear will actually imperil feminism. Because if adopted as a narrative by this nation and its women, it could not only subvert but erase the meaning of what real progress for women means, what real gender bias consists of, what real discrimination looks like.
Wendy Doniger, a professor of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School wrote on her Washington Post blog:
Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman. The Republican party’s cynical calculation that because she has a womb and makes lots and lots of babies (and drives them to school! wow!) she speaks for the women of America, and will capture their hearts and their votes, has driven thousands of real women to take to their computers in outrage. She does not speak for women; she has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class women.
A blogger named Holly at Menstrual Poetry expressed:
Not only is Sarah Palin not a feminist, she is as anti-woman as Bush and McCain combined. That is the reason why McCain picked her; not because she is a woman and he wanted to be underhanded (which he totally did,) but because she’s a Republican, conservative man who just happens to be in a woman’s body.
At Salon, Cintra Wilson wrote:
As a woman who does not believe what Palin believes, the thought of such an opportunistic anti-female in the White House — in the Cheney chair, no less — is akin to ideological brain rape. What this Republican blowup doll does with her own insides in accord with her own faith is her business. But, like the worst and most terrifying of religious extremists, she seems very comfortable with the idea of imposing her own views on everyone else.
Wilson also called Palin a “Christian Stepford wife in a sexy librarian costume.”
Sarah Zamboni at the Boston Globe opined that it was wrong of Palin to not support Big Government ticket items that liberals typically fawn over:
The conservative virtue of Palin’s life is that she doesn’t need anything from anyone outside the family. She isn’t lobbying for, say, maternity leave, equal pay, or universal pre-K. Let alone universal health insurance. Or college tuition breaks, especially for that soon-to-be-teen-mom and her soon-to-be husband. Compare this with the Wal-Mart mom juggling day-care fees and gas bills, fantasizing about a job with benefits and the flexibility to be home when the kids are sick.
As Cathy Young, a contributing editor at Reason magazine explained in a New York Times op-ed:
…feminism must demand support for women from the government. In this worldview, advocating more federal subsidies for institutional day care is pro-woman; advocating tax breaks or regulatory reform that would help home-based care providers — preferred by most working parents — is not. Trying to legislate away the gender gap in earnings (which no self-respecting economist today blames primarily on discrimination) is feminist. Expanding opportunities for part-time and flexible jobs is “the Republican Party line.”
I disagree with Sarah Palin on a number of issues, including abortion rights. But when the feminist establishment treats not only pro-life feminism but small-government, individualist feminism as heresy, it writes off multitudes of women.
According to these feminist writers, feminism requires toeing the Democratic line in order to join the movement. In a period of a few weeks in fall 2008, a clear message was sent out to conservative women. Unless you supported abortion and government-mandated programs such as universal childcare and health care, gay marriage and affirmative action, there was no place for you in feminism.
I guess the “you go girl” open-minded feminism that the third wavers were promoting was a sham. Feminists were willing to welcome anyone except conservative Republicans.
Tags: feminism, KellyAnne Conway, Laura Ingraham, Sally Quinn, Sarah Palin
