The nomination Governor Palin has shown that the feminist movement is fractured and outdated. For many women this isn’t breaking news. Ask a woman if she is a feminist, and see how many hedge their answers. ‘Well I don’t hate men’; ‘I wouldn’t say I’m not a feminist’; ‘Depends what you mean.’ The problem with the feminist label became abundantly clear with the arrival of Governor Palin. The VP pick incited ‘feminist’ organizations to scream bloody murder. Thus showing that these organizations are solely for the promotion of liberal women and/or liberal values. Certainly that’s their right, but doing so under the moniker of feminism bastardizes the original meaning of feminism.
Originally feminists wanted equality. They sought the freedom to choose whether they worked or stayed at home. They sought to be seen as something beyond the property or appendage of a man. They wanted equal pay for equal work, and to be seen as having the same intrinsic value as a man. The successes of the movement were epic as now women play sports, are doctors, scientists, and professionals, and have a myriad of choices before them.
However, the pick of Governor Palin revealed that the goals of current feminist groups are no longer about breaking gender barriers, or promoting individual choice. They have become all about promoting a particular agenda. They have decided that a woman can not be a person of faith, particularly if that is a conservative faith. They have decided that abortion is the only issue that women should be interested in, and that they must fall on the side of choice. They have limited what women are ‘supposed’ to believe and limited their life choices to fall within a set of ‘feminist’ parameters. They are undermining the original intent of feminism, and the idea of equality. They are labeling those women who disagree with them as less valuable. Instead of encouraging a diversity of thought and opinion, their narrow definition of feminism leaves most women out. It’s an odd success for the original feminists that the current feminist movement is now dated and fractured as there are too many successful women who no longer fit into the ‘feminist’ mold.
As the National Organization for Women endorses Barack Obama, members of Democracy in Sufrage express their outrage at this endorsement…
“Suffragettes and Men of Honor “
We need to contact NOW, let them know what we think. How can NOW endorse a man for the highest office of the land. Who pays his Senate staff , not even equal work for equal pay, fact is on average women make $6,000. less then men in his office.Senator John McCain has more women than men, and they tend to make more. Why would they not support the candidate with equal pay for equal work. I am a member of NOW, I am outrage this is a slap in the face of every American; let alone a women…
Who says history does not repeat itself? After the Civil War when African American men got the right to vote, the woman’s movement split as well. They had long been advocates of freedom for the slaves and had assumed when things were “righted” after the Civil War, it would be a new era of equality for all.
What we have within the Feminists movement now is a cultural divide. Read Camile Paglia’s article at: http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/09/10/palin/. Although she does not agree with Palin’s stands, she describes this great divide very well.
By: Cheryl Haun Morris, Ph.D. on September 16, 2008
at 10:30 pm
Ladies and gentlemen….I’ve found footage of the “troopergate” investigating team.
By: Timothy on September 17, 2008
at 12:15 am
The leadership of the Democratic Party is far Left/Marxist. The identity groups within the Party are committed to their agendas first and to a lesser and uneven extent to Marxism.
The Democratic Party nomination process (primaries, caucuses, superdelegates) was designed to assure that the leadership could maintain control of the nomination, in spite of the “democratic” nature of the primaries and caucuses.
The Marxist leadership selected an unknown Marxist from the second demographic to be the nominee for President. In doing so, they bypassed the leading candidate from the first demographic, women. I have no truck with Hillary Clinton, but she was robbed.
When the Politburo makes a decision, it is the function of good Party members to salute and carry out their assigned tasks. This worked fairly well in the Soviet Union until the USSR collapsed of institutional corruption and functional inefficiency.
It is not at all clear that this will work in the USA. There are a limited number of “good Party members”; most of the identity groups are loyal to their tribes, not to George Soros and Teddy Kennedy. So the feminist demographic is showing signs of fracture.
The Black demographic is not showing signs of internal fracture now, but wait until after the election. Blacks have a tremendous investment in Obama’s candidacy, based on his Blackness and ignoring his Redness. But Redness is the defining characteristic of a long string of Democratic losers: McGovern, Dukakis, Mondale, Gore, and Kerry.
The clinger demographic will massively reject a Marxist as president, and Obama will lose in November. Blacks are going to be pissed.
So, the Democratic Party, in its wisdom, has thrown away a sure-fire election, created major rifts wihtin its two largest demographics, and a major split between its two largest constituent groups.
Institutional corruption and functional inefficiency. Back in the USSR.
By: Iago on September 17, 2008
at 2:56 am
Palin is a definite step back for the progress women have been making over the last century. The fact that I can’t laugh at the SNL skit because it’s too much like the real thing is not a good sign.
As a guy with a very ardently feminist girlfriend it baffles me to see women who don’t support their own rights.
By: rbrosmer on September 17, 2008
at 8:22 pm