Sarah Palin, Culture Wars, and the History of Feminism

Some of today's leading feminists are rather upset at the thought that Sarah Palin might be the new standard bearer for feminism. Here is how Gloria Steinem described Palin's ascension into the discussion of feminism and culture wars.

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does.

To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.

Here is how Sally Quinn derided her.

it's interesting that here I am, supposedly part of you know, the -- what one would call the liberal elite media. That's what we've been all -- the critics of Sarah Palin have been called. And yet, taking the position that a woman with five children, including one with special needs, and a daughter who is a 17-year-old child who is
pregnant and about to have a baby, probably has to rethink her priorities got. It seems to me that there is a tipping point, and I think that she's crossed the tipping point. I believe that it's going to be very difficult for her...I think this is -- this is too much."

Here is how self appointed feminist Sarah Seltzer saw it.

When I saw that John McCain had picked Sarah Palin as his running mate this morning, I was on the elliptical trainer, and my rage propelled me to the most furious workout I've had in a while.It's always exciting to see women enter the political fray at higher levels. But a lot of feminists out there, are appalled by the cynicism and condescension inherent in this choice. It's as though the McCain camp believes our irrational she-hormones will lead us, like sheep, to pull the lever for any candidate who looks like us--even if she has a strong record, as Palin does, of standing against women's interests.

He hopes to court Hillary Clinton supporters with a woman VP who said on camera that she didn't like Hillary's "whining" about gender issues, a woman with unpopular, far-right positions on reproductive justice issues and LGBT rights. She's a woman who rides high on being a super-mom, but has an environmental record that won't leave the world in good shape for the next generation, her kids' generation.

Now, the feminist movement today is defined as it always has been by such issues as equality of pay. Yet, let's face it. The issue that drives feminism today is the issue of abortion. So, when these leaders of the feminism movement say that Sarah Palin is no feminist, what they are really saying is that she is not pro choice.

The reality is that the issue of abortion has hijacked the feminist movement only over the last generation. The historical leaders of feminist movement were all nearly uniformly against abortion up until the last generation. According to the book, Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies, here are how some of the leading original feminists viewed abortion. Susan B. Anthony, the original feminist, referred to abortion as murder and said this.

We want prevention not merely punishment. We must reach the root of this evil. It is practiced by those whose innermost souls revolt from the dead

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, publisher of the feminist magazine the Revolution (along with Susan B. Anthony), said this.

When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."

Emma Goldman, a nurse and founder of the feminist magazine Mother Earth, said this.

The custom of procuring abortions has reached such appalling proportions in America as to be beyond belief...So great is the misery of the working classes that seventeen abortions are committed in every one hundred pregnancies."

Victoria Woodhill, the first female stock broker and the first woman to run for President, said this.

The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the fetus

and this...

Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth.

Sarah Norton, the first female to attend Cornell University, said this.

Child murderers practice their profession without let or hindrance, and open infant butcheries unquestioned...Is there no remedy for all this ante-natal child murder?...Perhaps there will come a time when...an unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood...and when the right of the unborn to be born will not be denied or interfered with

Alice Stokes Paul, the author of the original Equal Rights Amendment, said this.

Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women

The irony is that Sarah Palin never wanted to be at the center of the culture wars and the debate on feminism, and yet she is now in the middle of it. Today's feminists are carrying a dirty little secret. The idea that feminism and abortion go hand in hand is a concept created by the current crop of feminist leaders that have embraced secular progressivism

Sarah Palin offers a different version of feminism and that really scares the current crop of feminist leaders. She is a successful woman with traditional values. She offers feminism through example. She can be a leader of the feminist movement simply by who she is. She doesn't support legislating equal pay. She opposes special laws from LBGT. In fact, she opposes most of the landmark ideas of today's feminist movement.

So, why would she be a leader in the feminist movement? It's because she succeeded and thrived through sheer will and hard work. She took on the figurative and literal old boy's network and she took them over, both in Wasilla and in Alaska at large. She has risen to the highest places of political power, and she has done it with no special favors. That's what really scares the feminist movement. She will become an inspiration for other women not because she believes what other feminists believe, but rather for who she is. By succeeding as mayor, whistle blower, Governor, and now potentially Vice President (and hopefully beyond) that does more for women's rights and equality than any of the legislation and ideas currently pushed and promoted by feminists. She didn't need any of the help that the current crop of feminists claim is necessary for success. They know it and it scares them.

This battle is not so much about ideas but about power. Sarah Palin represents the antithesis of everything the current crop of feminist leaders believe in. If she ascends to the Vice Presidency, she will also take the figurative mantle of feminism. That will drive feminism in a whole new direction. That will of course marginalize the current crop of feminist leaders. By marginalizing them, their voices won't have the power that it has now. They know it and that's why they are so scared of the Sarah Palin phenomenon.