I task all my readers to ask their feminist friends how they would rate the following hypothetical woman:
While a housewife, having only been elected to local office, this woman helped expose the corruption and/or end the political careers of three white male Republican politicians holding statewide office.
Ask them if they believe such a woman should be celebrated for her achievements, perhaps even a candidate for higher office. Make sure to take down their responses. Once they have expounded on this (supposedly) hypothetical woman, you can tell them that she’s not so hypothetical. For such a woman does exist. She is currently the Governor of Alaska.
Now tell your feminist friends who that woman is and ask them what they now think of Sarah Palin.
I bet they’ll get mad at you for having tricked them. If they do, ask them where’s the trick, then ask them what they know about that good woman’s record in Alaska.
Ok, I asked myself, and I think your question was totally sexist. She is a Mother, after staying home to raise her children sought a career at a local level. It is inspiring to me. Do you have any idea how many woman who are “housewives” start successful businesses. Just because they choose to stay at home for some years to raise children does not make them any less. Another thing there are more and more househusbands, are you going to degrade them when they choose to start a career after so many years????? Gay couples will have to think about that. Be careful who you trash, it comes back to you.
And she helped expose corruption. Sounds pretty admiral. Sorry about your white male republicans, I am sure she didn’t target them because they are male or white, or republican, maybe they were corrupt. just saying. If you really want to have a conversation with women, get off the housewife thing, it’s getting old. I am getting tired of gays bashing woman, when so many woman are helping with their fight or equality. I came to this site so I would not have to hear it anymore, was I wrong?
Bashing women, kt? Hardly. Here, I am celebrating one.
We have been regularly defending and praising Sarah Palin on this blog for nearly a year now.
Yes, I know that and you have been very respectful, unlike the many sites I left, especially from the left. The question was biased. Take out the woman and housewife and put in a person, then you could get an unbiased response back. It comes across as if it is a woman’s fault the man lost his career because he did corruption. If he didn’t do anything stand up for the man. It comes across like she did something to him, what was that? Tell the story. I would be interested in the details. Otherwise it sounds like an angry man not very happy about a woman in politics.
KT. you sound like a woman with a big chip on your shoulders.
Since when in housewife a bad word, oh yeah, since feminism came into vogue.
I do get sensitive on the issue. Vanity Fair article still on my mind. I am not a feminist because the left trashed the word and made it about the left agenda.
Housewife is not a bad word, however when used to describe the inexperience of a woman it is biased. I stand by what I said but it may have had some extra emotion behind it. For that I apologize.
I mentioned it because I respect your site and I thought you might see it.
I tried something like it on a feminist friend last year – more in sadness, than in a desire to ‘get’ anybody. It made no impact. This particular feminist friend found ways to dismiss and negate Palin anyway, saying things that were either off the mark (“what about all those books she’s banned”), or subjective and unbelievably sexist (“I can’t believe she’s running for office when she has five kids – I can tell she’s not there for her kids at all; she’s running a dysfunctional family”).
Ok, after reading the last comment I got it. Sorry I took this wrong. Man I am super sensitive on this issue. I understand you were saying it was a good thing and talking to feminists women they would know that. It is something I have heard from conservatives in the negative way, so it struck a cord.
It is taking me awhile to trust conservatives. My brother was conservative, log cabin and all, I supported the left for so long. I have been supporting my brother who is gay for years. Did a video that won a national contest, and I am watching him turn total left, we have many arguments about misogyny, he does not get it. Anyway, I got it. Sorry about the misunderstanding
I admire Palin and consider her well worthy of everyone’s admiration. I am saddened that many conventional feminists (leftist / Democratic women) can’t recognize her accomplishments and offer distorted, pitiful excuses for their hatred of her.
Regarding the statement
While a housewife, having only been elected to local office, this woman helped expose the corruption and/or end the political careers of three white male Republican politicians holding statewide office.
I think such a person is well-deserving of praise. Do feminists really have a problem with recognizing the positive qualities here.
Regarding Sarah Palin, it seems that there are good reasons, as a whole, to like her as a politician, or dislike her. It doesn’t seem to me that it should depend on whether or not she was a housewife.
I personally am not a fan of Palin, and don’t think that she will be prominent in Republican politics in the future, say 2012 and 2016 (Btw Dan, I remember my promise to you if I’m wrong about that). So while not a fan of Palin, I do admire the positive qualities that she has, and realize that there are plenty of people that like her politics and believe she should be a national leader.
Ugh- feminist, I hate what that word has come to represent.
I learned very quickly how hypocritical the ‘feminists’ in my life are when Sarah Palin came to the national stage. From my mother in law, who couldn’t stand SP due to her voice but knew nothing about her policies to my closest girlfriends who said she was stupid and she banned books (untrue), made women pay for rape kits (untrue) cut special ed funding (untrue), was too inexperienced (hello! business owner, mayor, governor) and said she was dumb because she said she could see Russia from her house (as we know, Tina Fey said it, no SP). When I shared reality with them, they either didn’t believe me or dismissed those little nuggets as less relevant than they were just moments before and took on the ultra-feminist view of ‘she’s too busy with all those kids and the knocked up daughter to be in office. There were also personal insults (voice, smiled too much, too attractive to be taken seriously, gets on my nerves, etc…) I learned a lot about how shallow and petty the moderate and lefty females in my life are. Apparently you have to be frumpy, barren, dour or matronly to be a feminist politician. Who knew?
The funny thing is, I was fairly ambivalent about SP in the beginning. I thought she gave a great, inspiring speech at the convention but seemed a bit green (not inexperienced but not as media savvy as she should have been prepped for). Of course, she wasn’t being groomed to be a master bullsh!t artist for years like our very inexperienced president whose work ‘experience’ is laughable in comparison.
I’ve come to like and respect SP quite a bit. She shows grace under extreme pressure, she’s fiscally conservative (the only real issue to me these days) and she scares the crap out of the left, which I admit is fun to watch. While she’s not my first choice for VP or CinC, we could do- in fact did- a lot worse.
I do not expect any woman to support Sarah Palin out of gender sisterhood. I do not expect any leftist woman to support Sarah Palin under any circumstances. I also believe that feminism has largely run its course. (I just put my helmet and flak jacket on.)
However, it is my opinion that professional feminists need windmills to tilt and Sarah Palin sticks in the craws. She is confident, accomplished, a super mom, striking, and much more. Feminists especially hate her lack of sense of being a gender victim. She really grates on them.
I’m embarrassed to call myself a feminist these days because of the hypocrisy towards and jealousy over Sarah Palin. It’s true that women’s worst enemies are other women.