Saturday, September 6, 2008

Sarah Palin's Feminism?

Ran across this.

The article is about Sarah Palin's membership in a Pro-Life Organization, which the article claims has "the centerpiece of their work being that abortion is exploitative, coercive, and always wrong and harmful, for any and all women everywhere, in every circumstance."

But the article also points out that "their web site speaks out on numerous issues of concern to women, such as violence against women, honor killings, coercive sterilization, literacy, child care, sex trafficking, and female genital mutilation."

So conservative groups are not only using feminist discourse, they are also using feminist causes. The group even explicitly names itself as feminist. But in the media and in politically minded arguments these groups do not count as feminist.

Perhaps one way to open up feminism to a larger body of supportive individuals is to include these conservative feminists into our left leaning definition of feminists, calling attention to these groups in conjunction with organizations like NOW and NARAL. This may be a way of revitalizing feminism in the public eye, and perhaps a step along the way to resurrecting it from the grave TIME supposedly dug in 1998.

At the very least, the fact that these feminist organizations are pro-life should not exclude them from being invited to join in other feminist efforts.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

More Feminist Republicans

"Mr. Giuliani then launched an attack on people who have questioned whether Ms. Palin will have enough energy to focus on the vice presidency as the mother of five. “How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president,” Mr. Giuliani said. “How dare they do that? When do they ever ask a man that question?”"

I think that this move is incredibly interesting. It uses feminist arguments, but not in ways my feminist self wants to see. In most contexts, I would love to see this question raised, but "feminist" comments like that are at the head of a Republican attack to construct the media as unreliable, unamerican, out of touch, and hopelessly liberal.

So I am conflicted about this, because I think that a Republican in office again would have the opportunity to overturn Roe v Wade and would not affect the pay gap, who would simply sweep a great number of feminist concerns under the rug.

How should I feel about these co-oped feminist messages?

Clearly, supporting a message is not the same thing as supporting the messenger, but I would appreciate any input on how we might deal with supporting feminist messages that we feel are coming from conservative forces.