Palin takes feminism back two steps during election
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November 4, 2008 • Shannon McGuire
Filed under Opinion
Women have come a long way since the 1920s suffrage movement, and we now see both sexes in places at the workplace and in politics conducting what was once considered man’s work.
Women are more confident and independent than ever before.
In fact, eight months ago, women’s rights leaders were confident that a feminist had finally worked her way into the White House.
Sarah Palin, running mate of John McCain, was not the type of feminist most leaders expected.
Designer glasses, pencil-skirt wearing, action figure inspiring Palin is the perfect model of a working woman on the surface.
Palin manages her career as the governor of Alaska while raising five children. She shows that women support both political parties and speaks with enthusiasm.
Yet her stand on issues regarding women lack support for woman’s rights.
Regarding sexual violence, Alaska has one of the worst state records in enforcing and prosecuting such crimes. Formal officials from Palin’s administration have confirmed that plans to tackle the issue were stalled after Palin took office as governor. To specifically focus on rape, Palin has an anti-abortion stand and as mayor in Wasilla, her town was the only town in Alaska to charge rape victims for their own forensic tests.
The American Chronicle says Palin brings a new kind of feminism to the table, one embracing motherhood and conservative values.
This so-called “new feminism” is not in-line with fellow feminist viewpoints. The National Organization for Women (NOW) endorsed the Obama-Biden bid due to McCain’s lack of support for “pay equity, contraceptive access and reproductive rights, appointing Supreme Court judges who will uphold women’s rights and civil rights, funding shelters and other anti-violence programs, and supporting working moms and dads with policies that support work/life balance.”
Biden actually makes more political progress for women than Palin. Instead of charging rape victims for forensic tests, he actually authored a law making it easier to enter information from rape kits to national databases (Debbie Smith Re-authorization Act 2008).
The main question the media are asking today is, “Will race trump gender?” Obama experiences similar scrutiny for “playing the race card in elections.”
Yet he strives for a neutral balance in his platform, straying away from the typical stereotype of an angry black male. He actually has been described as “empathetic and feminine,” according to the Huffington Post.
Palin continues to label herself as a feminist, and acts like “a pitbull with lipstick,” yet the only thing truly femine about her is her gender. If her anti-woman stand in politics shows anything about her lack of representation for woman’s views, it would have to be that her actions are unsuitable for one considered a feminist.
In interviews without McCain or another representative of the Republican Party, Palin is exposed as uniformed. If she is a true vice presidential candidate, then she should be able to handle a news conference.
More importantly, if Palin is a feminist, then she should be able to speak for herself. The idea that Sarah Palin is a delicate flower to be shielded and trained in defense of the media is insulting to working women.
It should be insulting for her, too. Instead, she listens to the men standing behind her, reads from a script and smiles. How retro.
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