I Forced Myself to Watch

You know, I know you know, somehow we had something to do with this.  Rosie the Riveter, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem all had something to do with this.  Governor Palin would never be a mayor, a governor, a working woman without Paul, Stanton and Anthony.   Sarah Palin bought what we were selling; women can have it all.  You can be pretty, sexy, married, a mother, a working mother and nothing will stop us.  So where did it go so wrong? 

Freedom and liberty is nothing unless it is guaranteed for all.  What of all the single women, the women who have HIV/AIDS, women in prison, women who cannot manage a pregnancy but cannot afford birth control due to governmental regs, countless American women who are heads of household who are working two jobs.  What of children learning true science, not biblical edits.   What of the principles of peace?  The video of Sarah looking through a scope of a gun doesn’t thrill.  You don’t have to kill dinner and if you do, it doesn’t mean you are one of the common people.   

As a feminist, as a women, as a Buddhist, Sarah Palin scares me; not just Sarah but her many supporters.  The hall was cheering for ideas that have zero to do with women’s autonomy and advancement.  I believe there are two terrible flaws in the thinking of this charming, coiffed, skirted group of women; 1) there are no lines between religion and politics and 2) they seek social ascension and power through being agents of anti-women men. 

Okay, it has been said before.  It was said about Phyllis Schlafly and she is still doing her bidding.  Certainly we all know about the USS Condoleeza; she didn’t get that by protecting women’s liberties.   I think all of this is particularly repugnant today in the dazzling light of Senator Hillary Clinton, the loss of Congresswoman Stephenie Tubbs Jones and the pro-woman man in Senator Biden.   

Women, when they are in a majority; able to determine their own religion, their physical destiny, their definitions of power have yet to really show the world what women could be.   That is what I want to see.  We sure have a lot of work to do.

Comments

[ckmunson]

I absolutely agree! It was refreshing to read your post tonight. I was wondering if I was the only one who felt this way!

[Wendy Werris]

Thanks for this. I had to turn the TV off as Palin scares the crap out of me. This is quite serious - she's the RNC's Stepford Wife.

[Chelsea Del Rio]

Today I received an email in my CA NOW inbox. The woman who wrote seemed to critique NOW's reaction to Palin. I responded as such:

"While NOW works to promote women's presence and leadership in politics, we would be doing a disservice to women and the movement for equality if we supported female candidates who are anti-woman."

Palin claims she works to dismantle the old boys network, all the while promoting an ideology that serves only to build up the rhetoric and power of this very network. I am sick of comentary that asks where the feminists are, implying that we should support a candidate for VP because she is a woman. A woman who completely fails to grasp the significance of reproductive justice, a living wage, environmental protection and lesbian rights (to touch just a few areas where she lacks consciousness) has no place in the leadership of our country.

[Chelsea Del Rio]

One more thing:

Anyone who critiques a person for being a community organizer (yes you, Giuliani and Palin) obviously has no idea what it means to be involved in politics because of the understanding that the very survival of countless Americans rests in changing the political landscape from bottom up. I refuse to trust anyone who does not know what if feels like to literally be on the front lines of fighting for their ideals and seeing first-hand what happens when government fails to protect those who most need protection and advocacy. Shame on them.

[Anne Grant]

Palin said nothing about health care, zilch about millions of Americans losing their homes in the mortgage crisis. Her belittling remarks about Obama were merely a smokescreen to hide what she did not say. Her tactic worked on at least one curmudgeonly commentator who grumbled about Hillary and Michelle, but went mindlessly ga-ga over Sarah's poise. She is the RNC's attempt to keep an oil person in the Administration, since they will soon lose the two who have brought them such windfall profits.

[layla love]

I was born the year of the Houston Convention where 10's of thousands of woman and good people everywhere gathered- for the rights of women.
Freedom on OUR Terms- I have been riding the wave since birth, through it's highs and it's lows- and now my heart sinks deeper than ever before- wow- what a terror- I even read the front page of a News Paper that claimed, "The problem with the glass ceiling is SOLVED!"

What we are seeing today with Sarah- is everything that we have fought so hard for gone terribly wrong- all these misogynist pigs are laughing at us right now- oh so you want to see a woman in office- well we won't let you have one what speaks her own mind and fights for the rights of women- but we will provide you with a shadow of a nightmare wrapped in female form. They assholes found the most anti-woman woman to string along the patriarchy - I will not accept your offering republicanism- I do only decline- I refuse- Refuse to live in a Nation run by monsters- male or female.

Any person who Hunts, Kills, Sends their very own children into a Heartless, Unjust War, who threatens all my rights as a woman-
is not a person I want anywhere near the law making process- let along right at the top- where all checks and balances have already been eradicated.

I have the same kind of sickening fear in the pit of my stomach as I did 4 years ago- and 4 years before that- and now the face of Evil is that of a woman- who aims to reflame the cycle of witch hunting- willing to wage war on her fellow women's bodies, our choice to love, - the separation of church and state that this nation was founded upon- the line grows dangerously thin.

We must unit as women- to say we support and celebrate those with politics that support us-

the sad thing is i really feel all those white male republicans- who have said countless sexist remarks about Hillary- are just thinking to themselves- oh now look at this dumb blow-up doll of a woman- she is going to bring the big prize home to daddy like a good little girl...

This is truly a time of golden crisis- a time when good peace loving, animal rights, human rights, woman, mamma earth herself- every living being is at risk in this moment- not only for the devastating effects this could bring for America but the effect it will have on the entire world- one that is already deep in peril.

I will be praying with all my heart and soul and working with every resource I have to counter act this most grim possibility.

I have faith in us still. The darkest hour is before the dawn. A new day is possible- not only possible but emanate- we are moving either towards the best moment- the millennial shirt or we are returning to the dark ages- and the dawn while belong to another generation.

I am ready for the breaking open of skies, the coming forward of light and I am ready for it now.

United We Stand-

these is my plea that we all do all we can in this moment to bring forth all our light.

May the healing, may the revolution come wide and deep.

I offer my whole life to the fight for women's equality- I live for it and I am willing to die on the front lines for it- *praying it never comes to that*- but willing none the less- that is how passionately I feel about the goddess in us all- the bearers of all life-
- so for me to see a woman in a place of power and feel so deeply hurt and betrayed by it- it is a very sad disjointing feeling.

But they will not succeed in this division tactic- I will never surrender the rights of my body, of who I love, of equal pay for equal work, for the protection of mother earth, for the protection of every living being.

May we all do all we can- to help birth the dawning of a new day.

-peace, love and other good things,

//layla

[Linda]

I had to teach last night so I didn't see the complete speech. I tried to listen to the reruns when I got home but fell asleep. I've been watching these conservative male commentators and they are estatic over this woman. Layla and others, you are all so correct, these Republicans think women are idiots. They have cleverly taken our concerns about sexism and flipped it. Palin appeals to these die-hard Phyllis Schafly types - "PTA Hockey Moms". No one can make any comments about Palin without being accused of being "sexist". I almost fell out of the bed when I heard Gulliani say that any questions about Palin being a mother is sexist and something that would not be asked of a man. I resent the fact that she is using her down syndrome baby as a prop (having it with her family at all of these events). This is all so completly calculated by these politics handlers. I know that after the incredible DNC these Republicans were in a complete panic which is why they selected Palin. When you think of how profoundly diverse the Democratic Convention was with women52% along with people of all races, ages, sexual orientation and physical abilities and compare it with this white, male Republican convention (I read that men outnumber women 2 to 1 and it has the lowest number of Black delegates in four decades (only 40). Who in the hell wants to be affiliated with a group who only uses women and minorities when they want to BLOCK progress (like Clarence Thomas and Palin). These Repulicans are notorious for using us. We HAVE to get out the vote and defeat these people. I"m forsing myself to watch FOX news this morning just to hear these conservatives. I just heard Chris Wallace comment on how "sweet" it was to see Cindy McCain holding the baby Trig (Palin's four month old infant) last night at her talk. When you don't have any critical thinking skills, you'll fall from anything. These people are TERRIFIED that we could actually have a multi-racial, intergenerational coalition with Ivy League Black people in the White house. We really can't have a country were white men aren't in charge. Its really interesting (and not so subtle) that these conservatives keep talking about this Palin being like the normal woman (soccer mom). What if you aren't a mother??? Why is this motherhood label being paraded (of course, to appeal to conservative women and men who want to keep women in their place). Fox News is now saying this woman represents small-town values, and is not like the left-wing zealots and the ones that the liberal press can't accept. So, now the presidentail race is a class war. Elite educated people versus the regular, small town barely educated or public school educated. I certainly hope this doesn't work. When you think about the images of the young women who are daughters of the previous presidents - Chelsea going to Stanford and the Bush twins going to yale and the U of Texas and now this Palin daughter being the knocked up high school mother that is now being paraded as a symbol of "courage" We must GET OUT THE VOTE. All of my feminist colleagues are terrified that these Republicans tactics will succeed in them winning the White HOuse. I certainly hope all of the Clinton backers will see that they need to actively work to get the Obama-Biden ticket elected. We have so much to lose if these people won.

[True Hillary supporter]

Palin is a true feminist. A forceful take no excuses woman. Her speech was fantastic in that she let Obama have it once and for all - Obama, a man with major internal issues with women (proven again yesterday when he, in effect, called Palin a pig). It is worth remembering that when Obama strode into make his victory speech in Iowa a song with the lyrics "99 problems and the bitch ain't one" was blasting

Obama is a dangerous fraud. Far more dangersou than Palin - who is inspiring. I suggest every read Paglia on salon this week. She gets it.

Equality either includes conservative women - or it is not equality.

[Mary Boone]

I know that i am late weighing in on this, but Palin is totally Bush in a dress. She even says "nucular". I tried to count how many times she said it in one of her speeches, but I got so annoyed that I lost count, but it was at least 7 times.How ignorant do you have to be to happily imitate such a loser? I don't think Bush even wants to be Bush right now.
How desperate do they have to be to agree that gays and lesbians should have the same civil rights as everybody else? I couldn't believe my ears when Biden and Palin agreed on this issue. The significance of this happening has hardly even been commented on that I've seen, except for a few comments that same night.When did the Republicans or actually the Mc Cainians(McCain wants to distance himself as far away from the party as much as he wants to diatance himself from Bush)start supporting civil rights for anybody, much less gays?