I spend a lot of time here discussing that if feminism is all about giving women choices how come only women who chose liberal positions merit the feminist label? Much of the time it seems that my opinions fall on deaf ears since most people on the right have completely given up on feminism or demonized it as evil. Since very few things in life are black and white, I set out last year to figure what feminism was about. Were all feminist evil harpies, characterized by Hillary Clinton, or had they actually done a few good things like revise rape laws and end workplace discrimination?

It’s very hard to find anyone willing to take middle ground on this issue. Feminists demonize anyone who diverges from the NOW-agenda for the 40+ and the Feministing crowd for the Xers and Millenials. Disagree with them, and it’s character assassination.

I was pleasantly surprised to see an article at MomLogic by two self-proclaimed pro-choice feminists that Sarah Palin is indeed a feminist.They echo many of the sentiments that I’ve shared over the past few months–namely that personal attacks simply because you dislike someone is not a rational political debate. Heather Robinson and Jennifer Ginsberg write:

Many of these columnists do not clearly explain why they believe Palin is not a feminist. But they suggest that her bid for vice president was a slap in the face to women. Their writing is filled with personal digs, referring to Palin, for example, as a “moose-killing former governor and mother of five,” and “Caribou Barbie.”

They believe these names cover a true reason for the attacks:

Women don’t come out and say they don’t consider Palin a feminist because she’s pro-life, because she made the brave choice to give birth to a baby with special challenges, or because she’s religious. But we believe those things (perhaps along with her beauty, and the fact that she hunts, and she’s managed to have both a successful career and a family) are what’s eating them.

I imagine if you’re Suzy Q Feminist and either fought your entire life for “equality,” or became of fan of feminism in order to overthrow the shackles of your middle class existence, Sarah Palin was a huge slap in the face.  A conservative, state-educated woman, a former beauty pagent winner (and we all know that beauty pagents are evil since Naomi Wolf told us so), hunter and PRO-LIFE woman is getting street cred for being a femininst. It would be like getting MVP status at a ball game without showing up to any practices. She didn’t have click moments at her Womyns Center at an Ivy League college, join any marches in DC or file any lawsuits against chauvenistic, capitalistic male co-workers.

Rather than pick a political issue and spend her life talking about it and complaining about it, Palin lived it. She didn’t spend time navel-gazing and writing op-eds about the difficulties of being a working mother or a woman in politics, she just overcame the obstacles and was successful. (There seems to be a lot of that on the right.) As the authors note:

All her life, this woman competed with men on an equal playing field, and in terms of concrete achievement, has done far more than many feminists who stick within their own homogenous enclaves and, frankly, spend a lot of time complaining.

Their last two paragraphs summarize why I write this blog, and why I furiously fight any attempt to be labeled by the f-word:

If feminism’s overall goals are advancing women’s freedom and empowerment, and promoting equality with men, we should have a great big inclusive tent that welcomes different religious and personal philosophies. We can recognize there is room for significant disagreement in our ranks, but that we share some core values.

In years to come, technology may radically alter the way we view issues like abortion. It’s tragic that the real definition of feminism, a doctrine that advocates equal rights for women, has become blurred over this single issue.