Let me say this one more time: Sarah Palin is not a feminist. In fact, the fabricated term "conservative feminist" is an oxymoron.
As I said this morning on the Laura Ingraham Show, Sarah Palin calling herself a conservative feminist is like BP calling themselves a corporate environmentalist. You don't get to just pick up that word and use it the way you want it.
I think we can all agree that feminism is about equality. Where we disagree is whether or not "equality" extends to all aspects of a woman's life—including reproductive health choices.
To me and the many other women's rights activists who have spoken out on this subject, claiming to support equality for women—without trusting them to make the most important and personal life decisions—is both absurd and insulting.
Feminism is intrinsically linked to a woman's ability to make the same decisions as a man. Women need to have control over their own important life decisions. It's that simple. If you take that power, that basic right of autonomy, away, you take away a woman's economic viability, personal freedom, and any ability to make her life her own.
True feminism means giving women choices. Anything else is silly putty feminism—stretching the word far beyond all meaning and recognition.
What's ironic is how women like Palin and Fiorina are reaping the benefits of the pro-choice feminist movement. And that's fine...when women have equal representation in public office, we will of course have women on both ends of the political spectrum.
But I find it immensely sad that these women aim to revoke the very rights which afforded them their chance to become successful political figures.
Of course, I can't change that. However, these women don't get to turn around and completely redefine the word feminist. They don't get to steal, mangle, and distort its meaning. Not on my watch, and not on the watch of the many organizations that truly defend women's rights.
Even putting feminism aside, 81% of Americans believe that individuals, not politicians or the government, should have control over their own important life decisions, according to their own circumstances and values.
Government isn't about forcing your own personal beliefs on the masses—and neither is feminism.
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Hah! You haven't been paying attention. They get to use ANY word any way they want. Look at "freedom." Or "constitution." Or 'security."
tokenism. Certainly the only important qualification she brought to the number two spot on the Republican ticket was her gender. We need not examine her total ignorance of foreign policy, current events, U.S. history or Constitutional law. She was put up front as a cheer leader who could pep up the crowd and be the token woman of the Republican party. Femininism has nothing to do with it.
I think it's dangerous to label women like Palin 'anti-feminist' because her supporters will argue that outside of reproductive issues, women can do anything men can do – hunt, fish, debate, etc – which I thought was the fundamental definition of feminism. If someone like Palin is not a feminist even though she is as loud and as brash and as 'fearless' as any man, what does that mean to the term? Stripping away the ability to bear children, are men and women equal or not?
One can be pro-choice, sexually active, and very faithful. Government has no right to tell any church they are not allowed to accept gay marriage or reproductive rights if they so choose without compromising individual religious freedom. Liberals need to reframe this debate in these terms or else we will be beaten by the morality stick over and over again.
We know what Palin's stand on gay issues are; it's not that dissimilar to 'kill the gays' music lover Michele Bachmann but she hasn't come out and said it as clearly as that. But if you read Obama's speech to one of the black congregations, he used scripture to bolster his argument against anti-gay positions. We need more liberals to battle this rhetoric with scripture or we will lose the battle of morality, which is the bigger battle this lot is fighting. If you need proof, remember Beck's request that his audience 'leave any church preaching social justice.'
Like it or not, faith is important to many Americans. Republicans use this to their advantage constantly. We need to fight fire with fire.
Example: when Sarah Palin's daughter had her baby, the two of them went on and on about how happy they were that Bristol "made the right choice." The point is, the choice was available to her, and she made a decision that was right for her at the time. The ability for women to do this is what feminism is all about.
What feminism is NOT about: Legislating to remove choices from women's lives just because you believe it would be the right choice for you. Just because you made a certain decision (like to have a child) does not make it the right decision for EVERYBODY. I'm talking to you, Tim Tebow's mom and Focus on the Family.
I am vehemently pro-choice, but don't consider myself pro-abortion. I would love for people to step up the plate when they make the CONSCIOUS DECISION to engage in "activities" which may lead to unplanned pregnancy. But I whole-heartedly agree that the choice is of much more importance than the "morality" of the issue.
As a side note, i'd love to know the author's position on a woman CHOOSING to own and carry firearms for self protection. Seems as though most times, those strongly in favor of liberal platforms such as feminism are also the chief proponents of infringing upon a woman's, or any other's basic human right to defend themselves, and instead, forcing dependency upon law enforcement to protect them.
As to the notion that if you take a position against a woman's ability to choose you can't be a feminist, does that extend to all choices with their body or just the choice to have an abortion? What about the choice to wear a burqa? What about the choice to do drugs? What about the choice to be a prostitute? What about the choice not to purchase health insurance etc.?
The heirs of white supremacy now act like they would have championed Rosa Parks, Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, and the entire Civil Rights Movement.
The heirs of white supremacy now champion a color-blind society as outlined by MLK Jr's "I have a dream" speech.
The heirs of support for Hitler in the 1930s now accuse liberalism of being fascism.
And, the heirs of opposition to womens rights over the decades now cast themselves as feminists.
Welcome to the Orwellian world of America.
No, Sarah Palin exemplifies feminism like the radical feminists wish they could -- without all the alibiing, excuses, and woeful cries of unfairness. Importantly, totally dissimilar to feminists with the Democratic Party agenda, Sarah Palin (plus Fioriana) can take it as well as dish it out. That's equality.
Babes.
She can't even answer the simplest question truthfully without making a fool of herself and later whining that it was a trick question. She is apparently incapable of seeing anything through to completion. Exactly what can she take?
She can "dish it out"???
Dish WHAT out? (Pageant answers? Folksy, mendacious, ungrammatical doublespeak?)
And I don't believe today's modern woman appreciates anyone calling them a Babe.
remember when Lincoln, and the common man's party was "republican"? well they took that word and redefined it.
you've heard of the "clear skies initiative"? the one that relaxed the restrictions on air pollution?
there's so many like these examples. FEEL FREE TO LIST YOUR FAVORITES HERE! sometimes it's difficult to separate the IRONY from the HYPOCRISY, so just include them both.
That's the only thing I ever agreed w/ Reagan about. but then, I like a few fries w/ my ketchup.