From Thatcher To Palin
A reader chimes in:
"I just want to ask: can anyone, anyone, imagine Condoleeza Rice or Margaret Thatcher or even Hillary Clinton for God's sake, winking at the nation and/or being coquettish in any national format? Yeah. Just checking."The damage John McCain's baldfaced sexism and Sarah Palin's cocktail waitress act have done to American feminism has yet to be fully assessed. Palin has actually forced me to realize that, however much I despise Hillary Clinton, I have never doubted her professionalism and capacity to fight and win on her own terms in a male-dominated world by meeting and exceeding the standards of any male counterpart. (It was not her fault she ran against the political genius of his generation.) I cannot even imagine her winking and flirting on stage, although the New Hampshire tears were a bit of a stunt.
Thatcher remains the standard. She was not above using feminine wiles in charming individuals; but in public, in debate, in the Commons, she beat men at their own game, using nothing but knowledge, forensics, expertise, argument and courage.
From Thatcher to Palin is not a slide downwards for conservative women. It's a free-fall. And McCain did it.
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4 comments:
From Brenda Luscomb at Dr. Lynette Long.com:
What the Democrats learned during the primaries and the Republicans might now be finding out the hard way, I learned at my very academic, well-regarded all-girls high school: that is never to discount the ability of women to open a robust, committed, well-thought-out vat of hatred for another girl.
Women are weapons-grade haters. Hillary Clinton knows it. Palin knows it too. When women get their hate on, they don't just dislike, or find disfavor with, or sort of not really appreciate. They loathe - deeply, richly, sustainingly. I do not say this to disparage my gender; women also love in more or less the same way.
When men disagree, the steps to resolution are reasonably clear and unsophisticated. Acts of physical violence are visited upon one another's person or property, and the whole thing blows over. Women? Nu-unh. We savor the discord. We draw it out. We share our contempt with our friends, like a useful stock tip, or really good salsa. And then we all go hate together: a mutually encouraging group activity for when the book group gets quiet.
The hatred women have for Sarah Palin, and others had for Hillary before her, is not necessarily about politics. Anybody can run the numbers on how many people Palin's pro-life, pro-gun, socially conservative policies will seduce and how many they will alienate. Rather, the test that the McCain campaign failed to put her through was the Abbotsleigh Ladies College test. (Named after my high school. Go, green and gold!). It's a simple three-point pass-fail exam: Will the other girls like her?
Here's why Palin doesn't make the grade:
1. She's too pretty. This is very bad news. At school, pretty girls tend to be liked only by other pretty girls. The rest of us, whose looks hover somewhere around underwhelming, resent them and whisper archly of their "unearned attention." So, if everyone calls your candidate "hot," you're in a whole mess of trouble. If the Pakistani head-of-state more or less hits on her, well, yes, she'll get a sympathy vote, but we're in Dukakis-in-the-tank territory. It's an admiration vaporizer. (Of course a candidate can't be too ugly, or it will scare the men, who are clearly shallow as a gender.)
2. She's too confident. This also bodes ill. Women have self-esteem issues. But they also have other-women's-esteem issues. As almost any woman - from the head of the Budgerigar Breeders association to Queen Elizabeth - can attest, it's almost impossible to get confidence right. Too timid and you're a pushover. Too self-aggrandizing and you're a bad word unless it's about a dog, or Project Runway's Kenley. Or Michelle, my best friend until 9th grade, after she won that debating prize and got cocky.
3. She could embarrass us. History is not on Palin's side. Every time a woman gets a plum job, be she Hewlett-Packard's ex-boss, Carly Fiorina, or CBS's Katie Couric, there's always that whispery fear that people will think she got the job just because she's a woman. So if things don't go well - and a couple of YouTube clips have suggested that they're certainly not going well for Palin - women are the first to turn on her for making it harder for the rest of us to louse up at work.
The fact of the matter is once a female decides it's over with another female, it's like an end-stage marriage. No matter how seemingly benign, every attribute becomes an affront: the hair, the voice, the husband, the moose-shooting, the glasses, the big family, the making rape victims pay for their own rape test kits.
I know, I know. With all this extra baggage a female candidate has to bear, the chances of finding a woman whom other women won't hate seem skinnier than last year's jeans. But don't despair, if all else fails, we could just do what we always do and just vote in some guy. It's worked so well for us in the past.
Too bad that liberal democrat women don't realize that their party left them a long time ago. It doesn't matter how they feel about Palin.....the fact is their own party didn't deem a woman good enough for the Democratic VP ticket...THAT is the biggest bitter pill to swallow. Who cares about Palin of you are a liberacrat? She isn't your candidate...she isn't someone you will vote for anyway...but for those of us that really DO want change, that really do want HOPE then the McCain/Palin ticket actually can deliver.....she has a proven record of change and of taking on her own party.....enough said.....women without an elitist agenda and women who are not pseudo-intellectuals can actually support Palin without feeling threatened or demoralized.
This from Dr. Long, renowned FEMINIST, am voting for McCain-Palin and I am a feminist. Many feminists can’t understand my choice. I am not betraying the cause, the fight, the mission, because I don’t want to vote Democratic. The Democratic Party is not our ally. The Democratic Party is 60% women but it has only once selected a woman as a vice-presidential candidate and that was nearly a quarter of a century ago. We are chattel in our own party. The head of the Democratic National Committee has never been a woman. Money donated to the Women’s Leadership Fund is funneled into the Obama Victory Fund. We cannot give dominion over our bodies or ourselves to one party. Current feminist groups have no teeth because they are part and parcel of the Democratic Party. They are held hostage by Roe v. Wade. They know it and the Democratic Party knows it. The only way to regain our power is to regain our vote. The Democratic Party has no reason to earn our vote. We’ve sacrificed one choice for another.
I will by not be held hostage by the Democratic Party that turned a blind eye to the corruption in the Democratic primaries and Democratic caucuses.
I will not be held hostage by the Democratic Party that ignored a woman who got 18 million votes.
I will not be held hostage by the Democratic Party a party that was deaf, dumb and blind to the persistent and pervasive sexist attacks against Hillary Clinton.
I will not be held hostage by a Democratic Party that has never had a female head of the DNC.
I will not be threatened into submission. I will not cast my vote based on fear.
The Democratic Party cannot be rewarded for its pervasive disrespect of women. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Sometimes you have to tear down a house before you can rebuild it. Most feminists think the Democratic Party will treat them differently during the next election. There is no next time. There is only this time. Reinforcing abuse only perpetuates abuse. In any abusive relationship, you have to leave to get respect. Abusers are often charming and apologetic and hold out the hope of better behavior. But there is no then, there is only now.
I am a woman and I am a feminist. To the other feminists out there I ask, “Where is your pride or are you a victim of your own misogyny?”
I am a woman and right now I am ashamed to say, I am a feminist.
Visit my blog: Dr. Lynette Long
THANK YOU Dr. LONG for being woman enough to voice it....
by Lynette Long
This my response to a letter from Eve Ensler, pictured above, who wrote The Vagina Monologues. Her letter is in black. My comments are in blue:
Drill, Drill, Drill
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. But you are about to do it. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. True. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. I personally met with John McCain and asked him to pick a woman for the VP slot which he did and he has committed to putting more women in the cabinet than any other President in history. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists. And since the Palin announcement the feminist community has shown the solidarity of a pack of wolves, ready to eviscerate another women who is about to make history. Did you know wolves and wild dogs eat their prey alive?
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism Working and raising a family is not antithetical to feminism. Playing competitive basketball is not antithetical to feminism. which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, I am sure Sarah Palin knows more about the earth living in Alaska than the New York City feminists who think Central Park is a separate ecological zone and a deer is a dangerous animal, ending racism, everyone is on that page, empowering women, Palin’s nomination has empowered women, giving young girls options, is this a euphemism for pro-choice, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, Where is your tolerance? and ending violence and war. Senator McCain and Governor Palin want to end the war since each of their sons are in Iraq. Who has a greater stake in the game than they do?
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, I believe the Obama/Biden is the most dangerous ticket in history. and should this country chose those candidates, the fall-out may be so great the country will be run the destruction so vast in so many areas, that America may never recover. If the country elects Obama-Biden they will have put in office a candidate that won the Democratic nomination though voter fraud, caucus fraud, thuggery, and large payouts. Women, tge swing voters in this election, will have elected the man that stood silently by as his minions, Father Pflaeger, Rev. Wright, and Ludicras, trashed a fellow feminist and member of the Senate. Where were you then? But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. And what is even more disturbing is that Obama was deaf to the voices of 18 million voters, many of whom rallied hard for him to put Hillary on the ticket. What message did that one act send to American women? You are invisible. 18 million votes is not enough, nothing will ever be enough.
In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity. Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. According to factcheck.org, Palin said creationism has no place in the curriculum. Barack Obama does not believe in fair play. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. In his first election for state senate he eliminated the four other candidates on the ticket using back door politics, so he could run unopposed in the Democratic Primary in a predominantly Democratic District which ensured his election. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. In his run for the United States Senate, Obama eliminated his Republican opponent, who was ahead in the polls, by opening his opponents sealed divorce file, and embarrassing his opponent into withdrawal. Again he ran unopposed. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. Is that not her choice? Isn't it called choice? Governor Palin's actions were consistent with her beliefs. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not. We currently have the right to choose and brandishing Roe v. Wade over the heads of women is fear mongering.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes. Eve, this goes way below the belt and you know it. Approximately 750,000 American teenagers get pregnant each year. Is this because of abstinence education, impulsive teenagers, raging hormones, or a lack of condom compliance by young women? You are not privy to the private conversations Senator Palin had with her daughter, and to imply so is outrageous. Governor Palin believes in birth control and sex education and to imply otherwise is scandalous. In addition she did not decrease special needs spending 62% but rather increased it.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. How can you say that with a straight face? From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, that is not true, in fact some of the books on the widely circulated list were not even in print at the time has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. Stop the lies. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. When did you become a psychologist? This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. This is a woman who is the Governor of Alaska, the largest state in the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth. Alaska is ten miles from the Russian border and has unique and complex challenges. She has the highest popularity rating of any seated governor. Could all those Alaskans be wrong about Governor Palin, or could the group feminists brandishing their indignation possibly be wrong about her? I coincidently was in Alaska when Sarah was nominated and to a person everyone loved her.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air. The same wolves that are attacking people at such a high rate that parents are afraid to let their children go outside to play and that are eating dogs left outside alive. Don’t talk about what you don’t know.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. Every elected President has believed in God and has called himself a Christian. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, Stop the fear mongering. This is a misquote. Her exact quote is "we should pray we are doing God's will in Iraq. when the rights of women are denied in his name, Sarah Palin moved to a more moderate church six years ago,that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be. I am far more concerned about the religious views of Obama, Trinity United Church of Christ and Black Liberation Theology than I am about anything said in Sarah Palin's church.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. I agree with you. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. This vote is a vote about integrity. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialog and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. No one hates war more than someone who has been to war. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. Every candidate knows and understands the importance of renewable energy such as wind and solar. It will determine if money gets spent on education and health care or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
I could not agree more about the purpose and importance of this election, but you have missed the most significant issue. Integrity. I cannot vote for a candidate with no personal integrity. You cannot teach integrity. This is a vote about a Democratic Party that selected it's nominee and ignored the will of the people. Where is your righteous indignation? This is a vote about a Democratic party that is over 60% women but has failed to put a woman on the ticket for a quarter of a century. Where is your righteous indignation? This is a vote about a party and a candidate that that paid off super delegates so that they would vote for Barack Obama. Where is your righteous indignation? This is a vote about a party that failed to have a legitimate roll call at the Democratic Convention but instead executed a sham of a roll call to dupe the American public. Where is your righteous indignation? This is an election about the National Organization of Women which was totally ineffective in protecting Hillary Clinton from blatant sexist attacks and about Kim Gandy, its president, who was secretly advising Obama on pro-choice language while Hillary Clinton was still in the race. I suggest they rename themselves the National Organization of Democratic Women. Where is your righteous indignation? This is an election about democracy of which there is none in the Democratic Party. This is also an election about feminists and the future of feminism. The feminists have come out with their knives and have betrayed the very thing they were supposed to protect - respect for other women. I've had enough. If you girls want to fight let's rumble, but stop the vicious attacks and lies about Sarah Palin. Stop the cat fight. It doesn't become you.
Pres. Shelly Mandel N.O.W., LA: “America, This Is What A Feminist Looks Like” - With Video
The Pres. of LA’s National Organization for Women yesterday not only endorsed Gov. Sarah Palin’s run for the VP position on McCain’s GOP presidential ticket.
NOW Pres. Shelly Mandel boldly pointed out that she IS a lifeling democrat, but in spite of some of their political differences, she knew Palin was ready for the job, and also credited her for her strength and accomplishments in her career … especially as a woman.
I checked Tammy Bruce’s site a little bit ago for her reaction (Tammy had been Pres. of the LA chapter of NOW several years ago before they seperated under ‘disagreements’ regarding abortion and its continued political use by the group) … Anyhow, Tammy hasn’t commented yet. If/When she does I’ll bring you her comments.
Until then, here are her previous remarks about Sen. John McCain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin.
The endorsement is big in that after over 5 weeks of this accomplished woman being trashed, ONLY for her differences from the typical ‘feminist’ ideology, SOMEONE of their ilk finally stood up and gave her the ‘thumbs-up’ she deserves.
Obviously Mzz. Mandel didn’t attend any of those “Camp Obama” gatherings.
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