November 17, 2008

I don't think so…

Spare me.

In a recent article discussing Sarah Palin’s future and her prospect of banking approximately 7 million in possible book deals on her experience as the Republican VP pick, Camille Paglia, the super conservative faux or anti-feminist feminist made this comment:

Camille Paglia, the radical feminist, declared that she had “heartily enjoyed [Palin’s] arrival on the national stage”. She had been subjected to “an atrocious and sometimes delusional level of defamation”, Paglia added. “I can see how smart she is and, quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones.”

This comment comes several paragraphs after this:

She [Palin] scoffed at untrue reports that she initially thought Africa was a country and that she didn’t know members of the North American Free Trade Agreement. She said much of the criticism levelled at her came from “bloggers in their parents’ basements just talking garbage”.

First of all, to the Times Online that referred to Paglia as a “radical feminist,” it looks like YOU’RE stupid and don’t know anything about feminism. Radical feminism is a specific branch of second-wave feminism that was revolutionary and challenged the existing tenants of feminism at the time, namely the dominant branch of Liberal Feminism associated with Betty Freidan and N.O.W.  Radical Feminism challenged feminism to push the envelope, move beyond legislation and the goal of incorporating women into the inherently flawed andocentric status quo.  In doing so, it developed a richer and more diverse feminist agenda that  certainly looks nothing like and has nothing in common with Paglia.

Second, Camille, we’ve seen Palin’s botched interviews, the inability to answer questions and the recycling of her campaign speeches post election.  We’ve heard her made ludicrous comments and insult the American public by being or acting dumb as a representation of the citizens of this nation.  To say she’s smart and everyone else is stupid makes it clear that you like her because you see much of yourself in her. A conservative mouthpiece that does not contribute to feminism or women’s studies.

September 11, 2008

"A new creation…of the feminist ideal"?

Filed under: Politics — Tags: , , , — Melanie @ 6:24 pm

Rebecca Traister’s article, “Zombie Feminists of the RNC,” is a required reading just as much as Steinem’s piece in the Los Angeles Times.  Anti-feminist feminists or faux feminists receiving more of the media spotlight is nothing new.  But, never has the spotlight shined so brightly and never have I been this frightened.  Traister echoes my despair, rage and fear when she states:

“For while it may chafe to hear Rudy Giuliani and John McCain hold forth on the injustice of gender bias, what really burns is that we never heard a peep or squawk or gurgle of this nature from anyone in the Democratic Party during the entire 100 years Hillary Clinton was running for president, while she was being talked about as a pantsuited, wrinkly old crone and a harpy ex-wife and a sexless fat-thighed monster and an emasculating nag out for Tucker Carlson’s balls. Only after she was good and gone did Howard Dean come out of his cave to squeak about the amount of sexist media bias Clinton faced. That may not be pretty to recall, especially in light of the Grand Old Party’s Grand Old Celebration of Estrogen. But it’s true. And it’s also true that if there hadn’t been so much stone-cold silence, so much shoulder-shrugging “What, me sexist?” inertia from the left, if there had been a little more respect (there was plenty of attention, of the derisive and annoyed sort) paid to the unsubtle clues being transmitted by 18 million voters that maybe they were interested in this whole woman-in-the-White-House thing, then the right would not have had the fuel to power this particular weapon.

Which leads us to my greatest nightmare: that because my own party has not cared enough, or was too scared, to lay its rightful claim to the language of women’s rights, that Sarah Palin will reach historic heights of power, under the most egregious of auspices, by plying feminine wiles, and conforming to every outdated notion of what it means to be a woman. That she will hit her marks by clambering over the backs, the bodies, the rights of the women on whose behalf she claims to be working, and that she will do it all under the banner of feminism. How can anybody sleep?”

There has never been a time like right now to wake up and reclaim ourselves for ourselves. Because if this war-mongering, gun-touting, anti-choice candidate officially marches into the office, we will have a long way to go.  It will make the fight that suffragettes began to wage during the repressive Victorian era seem mild in comparison.

What will YOU do?