Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Conservatives and Feminism

There has been a new push for the idea of this being The Year of the Woman. Cue the fanfare. And it is a little odd as it is not as if women don't win primaries, and then multiple ones. Though this time the newbies are Reps, and that may be why. They are good at getting media to run in their preset rings. This is a push by Reps to push up minority members for government to try and seem more big tent, though we have not seen yet if this is more change or ploy. So we will see, and as we do the media is thrilled to have a new event for the moment to chat up.

This has also been a time that Palin continues to try and put herself up for a role as feminist extraordinare. She doesn't really get what feminism is or feminist are eager to work for. She definitely has no record to prove her claim, other than the one from birth stating she is female.

Is that enough. Femocracy looks at this in a series of post that just started. Look at the feminists and the conservatives.

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And I've watched as Sarah Palin was first declared the final nail in the coffin of "liberal" feminism, only to pull a 180 and become the reviver of a "new kind" of feminism, as dubbed by the media. After the victories of Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman and Sharron Angle, I've watched as women candidates winning became the culmination of feminism's efforts, yet was a "huge blow " to feminism since the outcome helped Republican women. And I've held off writing about it, mainly because the majority of commentators did what the media practically exists to do now, which is to vacillate wildly between extremes with little measured commentary or careful analysis. (I may be biased, but I think the only thoughtful commentary I've read is on websites with a feminist bent, or op-eds by actual feminists, who really focus on these issues and are better positioned to be experts on this sort of thing.) Since this is important to so many women, to the whole country really, I thought it wiser to take a step back, watch it unfold and think about it more deeply. That is, until I read Ross Douthat's column today and decided maybe it's time to formulate my own perspective.

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