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Taylor Marsh

Taylor Marsh

Posted: May 16, 2010 10:03 AM

Sarah Palin Is Not a Feminist

What's Your Reaction:

Sarah Palin spoke at the Susan B. Anthony List breakfast on Friday, ranting on and on, invoking "mama grizzlies," while using anti women's rights language, evidently not at all concerned that her usual rhetoric extolling the values and importance of freedoms doesn't extend to women. Don't get me wrong, I respect the rights of Sarah Palin and conservative women to make decisions that fit their lives and philosophy. Unfortunately, they do not respect mine or the millions of other women who stand up for women's individual freedoms and the right to self-determination that equals any man.

You simply can't be a feminist if you don't support a woman's individual rights. Announcing a "new conservative feminist movement" without acknowledging the individual freedoms of women won't cut it. This feministic facade that actually takes aim at women's rights should be seen for what it is.

Anything less than supporting women's full individual rights simply renders you a pretender, a fake, a feminist fraud.

From Emily's List president Stephanie Schriock in response to Mrs. Palin:

"Sarah Palin talks a good game about 'grizzly bear moms' taking the country back - but I come from the West too, and her version of what American women want doesn't honor the freedom and independence that the women I grew up with in Montana cherish," said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY's List. Referring to the "Palin 4" - four Democratic Congresswomen whom Palin displayed on her Facebook page - Schriock continued: "First she puts targets on their back, then she wants the government in their bedrooms - what is Sarah Palin doing to western women?" "Palin doesn't seem to trust American women to make their own decisions - though she speaks movingly about her own. I believe all American women are entitled to the freedom and independence I grew up with, and that EMILY's List endorsed candidates continue to fight for in states across this country." - SCHRIOCK TO PALIN: YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR MY FRONTIER

Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, remained silent, though her ineptitude has already been proven. As for NARAL and NOW, they're completely ineffectual, so nothing is expected.

Segue to Gallup's latest poll proclaiming "The New Normal on Abortion: Americans More "Pro-Life". Though it tries to bolster the Sarah Palin wing of the anti women's right lobby, Gallup needs to take a step into the 21st century, maybe taking a page from NPR's neutrality language when talking about reproductive rights. One can only wonder what the outcome would have been if Gallup had chosen abortion rights supporter (or advocate) and abortion rights opponent (or advocate). However, they have to support the status quo, which comes from another era. Until they change the language we should all take this organization for what it is: an organization that pushes an agenda that marginalizes women's freedoms in order to get a specific outcome, which benefits the right in this country, regardless of party.

Unfortunately, one particular part of the poll didn't pan out for Gallup, so they buried the statistics. When asked if abortion was "morally wrong," the number dropped from 56% who believed it is immoral in mid-2009, to 50% believing it is not immoral now in 2010. The opinion that abortion is "morally acceptable" numbers went up by 2%.

"Pro life" Independents, with no leaning to either party, have retreated by 2% points from their high of 47% in 2007-2008, back down to 45%.

But really, it's all mumbo jumbo, because Gallup has stacked the language against women's rights and freedoms.

Don't want an abortion? Don't have one.

But no one should be able to take a woman's freedom away from her, which is what Sarah Palin and her feministic followers want to do. Anyone who tries to strip women of our individual freedoms is not for women's rights, but also against women's freedoms, and they most certainly aren't a feminist in any real, true or important manifestation of the word.

Freedom is not just for men.

Human rights are women's rights, which include individual freedom, which no one has the right to abridge.

Taylor Marsh is a political analyst out of Washington, D.C.

 

Follow Taylor Marsh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/taylormarsh

 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
03:41 PM on 05/20/2010
INTERVIEWER: But under your philosophy, it would be okay for Dr. King not to be served at the counter at Woolworths?

PAUL: I would not go to that Woolworths, and I would stand up in my community and say that it is abhorrent, um, but, the hard part--and this is the hard part about believing in freedom--is, if you believe in the First Amendment, for example--you have too, for example, most good defenders of the First Amendment will believe in abhorrent groups standing up and saying awful things. . . . It's the same way with other behaviors. In a free society, we will tolerate boorish people, who have abhorrent behavior.

Sarah commented today that she thinks Rand has good "social" ideas! Not only is she not a feminist, she is a tad bigotted if she supports Rand's social views. Racists are bores and have abhorrent behavior but we must tolerate them. Yes, but we don't have to tolerate you Rand and Sarah - get the word out and Vote in November. Thanks Rand for this insight into your real character.
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05:10 PM on 05/22/2010
So in otherwords, Paul doesn't believe it's the place of government to arbitrate what individuals can and can't do with their private business. He pretty clearly denounced and abhorred that individuals decision, but essentially said 'since I believe in freedom, there's not much government can do nonetheless.' Instead he advocates for individuals to take personal responsibility in their communities and stand up and denounce that kind of poor policy. He doesn't say we tolerate them, he says government shouldn't attempt to control them. Just to put this in the proper context and perspective.

(p.s.- I responded to your replies below but it was too long to reply directly.)
10:58 AM on 05/20/2010
Sarah Palin is not a SEVENTIES feminist, defined by a craving for abortion. She's the new deal, totally 21st century. More power to her.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
12:09 PM on 05/20/2010
There is nothing new about her regressive stand on privacy and women's rights. Just keep dancing on the graves of our grandmothers - ignore history. To deny choice to all women is a fundamental deal breaker for most gals even if those gals would never have one themselves for moral reasons. She is anti choice and not pro-life. Wake up: the neos want us divided. The neo women want to divide old and new feminists: wake up.
02:43 PM on 05/20/2010
Did you know that more women identify as pro-life then pro-choice? It seems to me that the people who "want us divided", are the people insistent on believing that they speak for the majority of women and that any women who thinks differently is somehow a "traitor" to the gender.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
12:10 PM on 05/20/2010
Craving an abortion: are you nuts? What the hell is that suppose to mean?

Were you even born in the 70's?

Do you care about poor women having access to safe health care?
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02:17 AM on 05/19/2010
A lot of commenters and the author of this article fail to address the heart of the debate-- of course a woman is entitled to make her own decisions about her own body. The debate is whether or not it's her body she's deciding for, or whether the 'body' that is removed in these procedures has a life of its own. You don't get to just decide that it is just the woman's body at stake, especially when a woman can't find herself in this situation on her own...it takes two- what happened to the father's rights? He's at the mercy of the mother to decide whether or not to carry to term, whether or not his potential child is born, and then forced with the 'burden' of 18 years of child support depending on her decision and the surrounding circumstances? Where's *his* choice, praytell? That's equality? And that doesn't even touch on the inconsistencies of the acceptance of pregnancy termination and the definition of life by pro-choicers. Bottom line is, you don't get to define the debate and then define the opponents argument and whether or not they support women. Address the debate for what it is.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
02:54 PM on 05/19/2010
Well most of the neocons would say the choice was made when he had unprotected sex Patrick. At least that is what I hear when from them when a women is faced with an unintended pregnancy. I hear what you are saying but do not think it is the heart of the debate - its one aspect but not the heart since biologically women bear the child, statistically women bear the majority of the child-raising responsibility and often are the sole financial provider when push comes to shove.
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05:17 PM on 05/19/2010
Sure, but that's generalizing. You don't eliminate one party's 'rights' over generalities. And protected or not, when two adults agree to engage in sexual behavior, protected or no, we can say that they agree to the potential consequences of that behavior. (not sure what 'neocons' have to do with anything.) Particularly when it involves an unclear and inconsistent debate about what is and what isn't life, and what is part of a woman's 'body' versus what has a life of it's own, or what qualifies as a human person worthy of rights. It's not fair to bypass the entire debate by asserting that a woman has an inherent right to make decisions about her own body...to that I say, 'OK, fine, but now you're going to have to explain why there isn't life, even if you reduce that life to a parasite. And why it's acceptable to terminate it.' It's just superficial, and glosses over the deeper philosophical implications involved with the abortion debate.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
01:45 PM on 05/18/2010
To the Anti-Palinite commenters on The New Agenda who are still able to offer a counter -opinon- thanks. Pretty soon you will be banned and censored too.

TNA- what a joke and what a bunch of gals who can't think for themselves - vote V vote V (but only if your V is a conservative neothug!)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
05:43 PM on 05/18/2010
The New Agenda
From: Lisa Jennings View Contact
To: amysisk@optonline.net


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do you censor so much on your site? Why don't you let other's post - I know many women that are banned from posting.

Is it to continue to promote the division - because that is exactly what your group is doing and then shifts the blame.

I am concluding that your vision is myoptic - otherwise why would you continue to censor?

Did you even happen to notice the nice comments your gals made on your 5 17 2010 Palin article? They are real nice to Ms. Miller or anyone else that does not tow the line.

Is this what you envisioned? Nice.
07:53 PM on 05/17/2010
abortion is unconstitutional.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
08:06 PM on 05/17/2010
too bad stupid comments aren't
09:15 PM on 05/17/2010
Personally, I think they're a good thing. If they were made unconstitutional this site would be absolutely barren...
06:08 PM on 05/21/2010
Hi Lisalulu...just wanted to say thanks for your insightful comments on this post.

and you're fanned ;)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SmileAndActNice
Utilitarianism, the -ism that works.
09:51 PM on 05/17/2010
If it was, you'd be able to link us to the text and Roe V.S. Wade would not have been called the way it was.

Also, if the constitution says that parents' bodies are the property of their children then organ donation would be mandatory for children in need. No reason Daddy should be exempt either. If the blood type matches drag him to the hospital and carve him up as needed.

Think of the children.
10:12 PM on 05/17/2010
"parents bodies are the property of their children"?? It's called "Parents are RESPONSIBLE for the children they conceive through their own actions". Mothers and Fathers. And, Parents are responsible for not killing their children.
03:05 AM on 05/18/2010
2/2

Now, if you can tell me exactly when those children were given these rights, then we can have a chit-chat.

And if you say that it was decided by the court, then I will point you to Hopt v. Utah, under which it says any person who may have their life taken by a decision MUST either be present or voluntarily give up that right, even a Minor.

Did that happen? Nope

And I'd also point out that a heart starts beating at 7 weeks, and neurological activity starts at 8 weeks. Now, this may just be me, but there aren't many dead things that have a beating heart. If there was, then Terry Shiavo would have been dead before the case even went to court.

Or, we can talk to EMT, who decide you're "dead" when your heart stops beating. Now, that must mean you're alive when your heart is beating.

w/ regards to our children, the Constitution uses the word "posterity" to mean offspring. Seems to me a child a woman conceives who has a beating heart and kicks is medically alive, covered in the constitution, and is therefore required BY LAW to face a fair trial before their RIGHT to life is taken away.
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06:44 PM on 05/17/2010
Sarah Palin is a Meist. me me me ist.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
midwestgirl1960
05:56 PM on 05/17/2010
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)
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05:08 PM on 05/17/2010
If you define "feminist" as someone who thinks that sucking a life out of ones uterus, puncturing the back of a full term infants head and vacuuming their brains out before they are fully out of the birth canal or hating men. Then no, she's not a feminist.
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06:45 PM on 05/17/2010
I doubt that's how anyone would define feminist.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
07:47 PM on 05/17/2010
fanned bravo
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09:05 PM on 05/17/2010
You may not 'define' a feminist that way, but they are certainly two basic characteristics.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
KayJay90
What in the world...?
01:02 AM on 05/18/2010
Ofergawdsake, STOP with that evil anti-choice lie.

1) even the Bible says "life" in the mother's womb isn't a soul and body until "quickening". Before that, it's a collection of parasitic cells not viable outside the mother's body.

2) if even something as drastic as "puncturing the back of a full term infants head and vacuuming their brains out before they are fully out of the birth canal" is done -- rarely -- it's done in cases where the body of the infant is macerated and necrotic and falling to pieces weeks before, and mother presented in near-sepsis, or the fetus died because the cord strangulated it in the womb, or the placenta had a fatal abnormality, or there were no brains to be vacuumed out (anencephalic).

I wish you rabid fanatics had just an iota of medical knowledge, and would stop your destructive campaigns based on some half-crazy ex-nurse's hyperbolic tales of "hearing cries" -- yeah, what she probably heard was gas escaping from the rotting fetal corpse.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
10:02 AM on 05/18/2010
Loveit!Fanned.
07:19 PM on 05/18/2010
Many doctors who have done partial birth abortions have testified that most of them are done on healthy mothers with healthy babies.
05:07 PM on 05/17/2010
Well, it's official... all my little post, questions to Suskind's article are banned...it took about 30 seconds after I asked commentator to look over the board of directors for little Amy's army of "feminist", to Google them...

I remember her support of Palin in the last election. I remember Suskind's little snit about how she was sick of the put-downs of soccer mommies...I remember her rant about how women should support women based strictly on gender, that old feminist were just "out" and "she-who-must-be-obeyed" were in...like civil rights are a fad!

Now she runs her own little "tea party" of conservative women (she says they're from all walks of life, but their bio's scream corporatist, media mogul, steeplejack'ers like Linda Klinge, new VP of NOW, plus, and assortment lovely republican "board members" who never worked a day in their life).

Now, I remember little Amy...she banned my way back when, too...(she can't take the heat).
05:42 PM on 05/17/2010
opps...they reappeared! Me and my big mouth!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
07:33 PM on 05/17/2010
Hey there tm22 - me too: censored at TNA. Shucks!

Listen those "gals" got a problem with anyone that contradicts their idolization of palin: then when you call them on it: they censor you! Ha. Like voting V is the answer: sorry that itself is sexist. Yet they don't see it and accuse me of being an elitist because feminism didn't fail me - freaking unbelievable.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
KayJay90
What in the world...?
01:10 AM on 05/18/2010
Just like the pro-Palinistas at c.o.n.s.e.r.v.a.t.i.v.e.s4p.a.l.i.n blog -- or Palin's Facebook (which is run by the same not-very-nice person who started up the aforementioned blog) -- you have to march in lockstep, always fawning, complimentary, loyal to Palin, or your comments get deleted. They ban commenters with hair-trigger haste.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Json
Cynical dreamer, sarcastic idealist...
04:26 PM on 05/17/2010
I think Taylor should duke it out with Amy Siskind to find out if Palin is a feminist or not.
MThomasNC
Retired, Sassy, Senior Citizen
04:24 PM on 05/17/2010
Palin along w a long list of conservatives speak in sound bites, if it sound good they say it. Look beneath the surface of their sound bites, they fall apart - no logic, no connection to reality as if they are operating in an unreal parallel universe. She, and other female conservatives may want to go back to the 1950s but the rest of us do not. In the 1950s Ms Sarah would not be allowed to go out and speak her garbage, or maybe she would be since that's where most men want their women to live anyway.
My lady Sarah is an opportunist from day one, talking and laughing all the way to the bank (only in America where so many believe such cinematics). She needs to go on stage or maybe she's looking to take over from Ms Phyllis Shyfler (misp) conservative group. She wants something.
03:38 PM on 05/17/2010
You can not claim to be a feminist--conservative or otherwise if you support Dominionists, Revisionists, Reconstructists, Christian Nationalists, or Biblical Capitalists. Sarah Palin is a Dominionist. She believes that god has given christians "dominion" over all things on earth. That includes humans, animals, and the civil secular government.
So all of you Sister Sarah supporters, fire up the goggle, and take a look at just what these groups have in store for you and yours.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
midwestgirl1960
02:52 PM on 05/17/2010
Who's having abortions (race)?
While white women obtain 60% of all abortions, their abortion rate is well below that of minority women. Black women are more than 3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are roughly 2 times as likely.

Who's having abortions (religion)?
Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as "Born-again/Evangelical".

So we have over 80% of Christian women having abortions but they tell the rest of us we can not.

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

We will be a better country when each religious group can trust its members to obey the dictates of their own religious faith without assistance from the legal structure of the country.
-- Margaret Mead
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
03:06 PM on 05/17/2010
Midwesterns have so much common sense (and facts)! Thanks. fanned.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
wyldthings
as a young man I said I'd never get old an didn'
02:08 PM on 05/17/2010
I've read many polls that show 53% of women identify themselves pro-life and 42% are pro-choice. I guess this author believes that if you believe in all the other things feminists support but not choice toy are not a feminist. Pretty narrow to me
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lisalulu
I stand for Planned Parenthood.
02:39 PM on 05/17/2010
Polls Polls Polls who is asking, how is the question asked - I'd like to see that data.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
wyldthings
as a young man I said I'd never get old an didn'
02:48 PM on 05/17/2010
Actually I do not care about the polls! My real point is that she eliminates all women just because of Choice not matter what their views on other things. As a man I fall into the highest group that supports Pro-Choice MEN, because we do not want to support a baby for life. My mother 81 years old Catholic pure pro-life AGREES that it is a woman's right to choice
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
wyldthings
as a young man I said I'd never get old an didn'
02:54 PM on 05/17/2010
"http://www.examiner.com/x-3108-Baltimore-Republican-Examiner~y2009m5d18-Gallup-poll-More-Americans-are-Prolife-than-Prochoice
I also understand polls change and are not 100% accurate
02:52 PM on 05/17/2010
The author points out that the wording of polls will influence the results. The President is someone who supports a woman's right to choose, but does not like the idea or practice of abortion.
HUFFPOST PUNDIT
wyldthings
as a young man I said I'd never get old an didn'
03:10 PM on 05/17/2010
And I agree 100% but I disagree with the authors conclusion that because you are not Pro choice you are eliminated as a Feminists. Way to narrow and not her decision.
01:32 PM on 05/17/2010
Anyone who has been watching Sarah's career since McCain chose her as his VP candidate already KNOWS that Palin isn't a feminist.

Sarah Palin is a Palinist.

If it's good for Sarah then she's all for it. If it's going to make Sarah more money, then it's all good.
02:33 PM on 05/17/2010
Well put.