Sarah Palin Feminism: Right-Wingers Look to Open a New Front in the Culture Wars

She's so irrelevant I can't even post about her- I've got nothing- except, um, I guess...Tina Fey, yeah, her brand of feminism connects with women. Sorry, I've got nothing, she's just nothing to me.

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"...she has expressed off-again, on-again support for talking about condoms during sex education..."

I guess Bristol came of age during the "off" period.

And really, if she's that traditional about family values, shouldn't Sarah be at home with the kids?

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Palin believes in traditional nuclear families - for
other women, not herself!

She is seen by her fans as "normal"?
She's rich, super fundamentalist, etc etc ad nauseum.

She represents what I hope is the passe fad for
worshiping the dumb (a la Bush) and fearing the
intellectual. Plus, she's clearly eye candy for
the susceptible of all genders.

I have a hard time linking this woman with feminism
in any meaningful way.

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Conservative Christian women are and should be free to live their lives as they see fit. If they don't want to use contraception, that's fine. If they want to stay at home, that's fine. The problem comes when they try--often successfully over the past 28 years--to impose their choices on others.

Obama is good at talking to others who disagree with him and finding common ground. If the right could be equally reasonable we'd be able to get past the stalemates on social issues and deal with truly important issues.

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She is, in fact, a blight on thinking, intelligent women everywhere.

If you already can't see this by now - if only through the policies she advocates - or doesn't advocate - then I'm not going to explain it to you.

Can't you people make her go away already?

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Who cares

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Enough already.........Palin is a "One Hit Wonder" who is going to quickly fade from public interest. She made a fool of herself during her botched run for VP. Clearly, she cost McCain the election. Those dum-dum interviews she gave were even worse than Caroline Kennedy's "Um" interview.

Palin will appoint herself Senator to Alaska, go to Washington, D.C. and continue to expose herself as a lightweight, who can't debate, has no clear focus on issues and isn't anything more than a lust object for middle aged, white, male Fundamentalist Republican Conservatives.

She's an embarrssment and her 15 minutes of fame is quickly passing.

Why does Alternet INSIST on giving Palin credibility by reporting about non-news regarding her status?

ALternet does the same thing - giving Ann Coulter credibility by continuing to report on her vitriolic, hate mongering blatherings.

IGNORE Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin.

WHY on earth is Alternet trying to tout Palin as a "feminist"? That's like calling McCain "too liberal" - which is what some right wingers have done in the past.

Ugh!

Double Ugh!

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I must assume these words by her son mean she made it fashionable to lie, make a complete fool of yourself in interviews and just show the world exactly how ignorant a fool you really are when one looks beyond the hype.

This woman is a joke and an insult to any thinking Woman.

Evidently the African preacher didn't do a very good job of protecting her from witch's. Or could it be that he just didn't understand she was the witch.

By the way Palin, you cannot see Russia from your front porch as you claimed so many times on National news.

It can only be seen from one small island far away from the Alaskan main land and you've never been there. In fact no Governor of Alaska has ever been there so I can only guess that your experience with Russia is that you heard someone use the name once.

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Keep moving to the right and Paling will win easy in 2012.

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I give her a lot of credit for flying in the face of traditional feminism and their pressures to conform.

For a women who holds her own values, balances a successful career with a family to be so criticized by feminist groups is nothing short of sexism itself.

So womens groups are afraid of her success? The fact that she decided to have her baby and not kill it because he had a defect is disturbing? The fact that her daughter had her baby instead of killing it because she was a teenager is disturbing?

So essentially what we have is a strong women, with strong beliefs in how she would run her life, strong family values that scares women groups. Maybe womens groups should be scared!

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There is a form of Orwellian "doublethink" in Palin's conservative feminism, just as there is in the Religious Right's claim that disallowing officially sanctioned prayer in schools is a violation of their First Amendment rights. The same is true for the neocons' and their "war is peace" mantra.

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While Sarah Palin may be a "nice person", she is a perfect poster child for why parents shouldn't home school their children. Why is it that conservatives feel that non-conservative feminists don't have values? As a matter of fact most of these conservative women don't want to recognize that they were able to achieve what they have because women were allowed under the law of Title IX to participate in making a life for themselves. These people are delusional if they believe that "free-market feminism" (whatever that means) is the same as legal protection under the law!

And just in case they don't see it, the "free-market" b.s. that everyone has been, and continues to tout has wrecked our economy, and we need to have rules and regulations in place! While we all would like to believe in the "angels of our better nature", would be egalitarian, and we can all hold hands singing Kumbya - today's reality for anyone that has open eyes is that unregulated "free-market" fundamentalism should be moored with rules and regulations. These supposed "Christian feminists" betray the very women they say that they are trying to reach!

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this is the best that they can do; steal our words and try to make them their own.

its incredibley insulting and distasteful.

palin is no feminist.

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The Sarah Palin phenomena is nothing new. She's just the newest and most politically prominent of a long line of what I call, for lack of a better term, right-wing strong gals.

Remember Phyllis Schlafly, leader of the anti-Equal Rights Amendment movement of the Seventies?

Compared to the leader of the pro-ERA movement, Bella Abzug, beehive coiffed, blond Phyllis was certainly a non-threatening looker to under-endowed American males worried that the Commies might whack their pee pees and hand the country over to man-hating, pinko feminists.

As far as I know, Phyllis was the first of these right-wing strong gals and she set the template: blond, articulate, independent though a "stand-by-her-man" kind of women--as long as said man stayed far, far in the background--and devoutly fundamentalist Christian.

Now, of course, the man in the background is optional, just think of ever popular, ever blond, right wing think-skank Ann Coulter. And if we consider Michelle Malkin in the fold of right-wing strong gals, the blond hair is also optional.

Indeed, the gene pool for right-wing strong gals is very shallow. At the very least a modicum of physical beauty is requisite. Why more than one of my progressive male friends, myself included, have voiced the opinion that Ann Coulter is kind of hot in that skinny-skank, amphetamine and beer, biker-chick sort of way.

Of course she's anything but. In Annie's case, she the product of an Ivy League education bought and paid for by her wealthy, corporate-lawyer daddy. But that's the hook her corporate backers are looking for: a good-looking, tough-talking women who espouses "traditional" family values--even though she herself has none--god, guns and the flag.

And le jeune fille Palin fits the bill for right-wing strong gal and the nation's first GILF (Governor I'd Like to ____), to the T. Remember Rich Lowery's post-Veep debate paean to Governor Palin? "I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch..." (As a heterosexual male of the Democratic persuasion, let me tell you, when she winked my reaction was "jesus christ, I can't believe this sh*t!)

So for Sarah Palin and her ilk it is all style over substance, pretty yet domineering in a motherly sort of way. A traditional "Christian" woman who "stands by her man" while wearing the pants in the family. And, most importantly for her corporate backers, a free marketeer, even though she's leeched off the federal teat, in one way or another, all her life.

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NORMAL! NORMAL!! NORMAL!!! NORMAL!!!! NORMAL!!!!!

The whole family is armed to the teeth, not just to hunt moose and wolves from aircraft, but with handguns for some mythical coming war. There's a picture of Bristol and her beloved with three guns total in their four hands. Governor Palin and her husband covered up their heavy involvement in the Alaska Independence Party.

Governor Palin will gladly not tell her own staff that she's 7 months pregnant. She's about to deliver a baby, her water breaks and so she jumps on an 11 hour plane ride.

Then there's all those drug use reports about family members.

The guv is paranoid of her political enemies, many of whom are Republican, and attacks without mercy. Again and again, she gets a free pass on breaking the law from the Alaska legislature. Her kids got thousands of dollars of free travel on the State of Alaska. She had a state cop fired as an act of family revenge. The Governor of Illinois is jealous.

Private reports of her using racially and sexually pejorative words jibe well with the public tape of her laughing along with a shock jock describing an Alaska state senator who has cancer.

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...it's one of the more interesting warts you'd expect to encounter in the political realm, and I'd like to understand it a little better. I'd particularly like to know whether the same emotions that prompt otherwise thinking people to lavish attention on Paris Hilton, Britney Spears are at play when folks start talking about Palin.

Would you characterize it as jealousy, "fleshy" idolatry, or just a desire to see uppity folks in high place get theirs. I tend to thing there is--to varying degrees--nasty little playground tossers of rocks in us all. Perhaps these Palintologists are simply acting out?

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the one word that comes to mind isn't "feminist", "conservative" or "independent". It's mediocrity.

Hence her appeal. Bush fan = Palin fan

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The subject is irrelevant and unworthy of the publicity this article renders onto her. I guess pundits have to write about someone.

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I'm concerned that our history as feminists is being co-opted by the women aligning with Palin. Do they really not realize that she wouldn't be governor if it weren't for those of use who entered the workforce in the 60's and 70's and fought to be recognized as thinking human-beings? We have been turned into anti-male, anti-family, physically unapealing haters who see ourselves as victims. That certainly isn't what I see when I look in the mirror, do you? We have to do a better job of informing our daughters and sons about our experiences and our goals. We cannot allow our struggle to be set back to fighting over the right of women to stay home and raise children, wear fitted clothes and high heels (that we have paid for) if we want to and Birkenstocks if we don't. We have to try to find common ground so that we don't have to cover the same ground over and over again.
Please, talk to your children. Take back our identity.

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Of course it's not the things you mentioned. Women in positions of power is a neutral concept. It's what drives them, what they know, and how they use that power that bears scrutiny.

In Palin's case, she has no attributes that work toward the common good. She is pathologically self-involved, incapable of self-examination or learning anything new about anything at all. How could she possibly carry feminism's new banner? She is self-promoting above all else and is female. That's it. She doesn't have capacity to even understand the subtle concepts of various ideas about feminism. And she really doesn't care.

Most revealing about Palin is that she is anti-science. This means that she isn't interested in facts about the world that have been generated in the most unbiased way mankind has yet devised. This alone makes her unfit for public office.

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"[Palin] embodies the American woman. She's independent. She speaks her mind. But she also embodies the traditional values that are so important to Americans."

And what would those traditional values be? Idiocy? Lying? Abuse of power? Racism? Lynch mobs? Blind ambition? Teen pregnancy? Sex before brains?

I'm confused. I thought truth and justice were the American way.

Granny's crazy videos = Go get a chuckle!

Luv,
Granny

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it would have to be sarah palin...personally i dont understand what slimebaugh has against feminazis.. given how they agree with other in virtual lockstep...

nor is sarah palin the only such feminazi either.. as witness maggie thatcher..ann coulter..carly fiorina..michelle malkin..dolores umbridge.. just to name a few...and yet even in the face of this gaggle of fascist bitches.. nobody ever saw sarah palin coming...but at least this time..ppl are paying attention...

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No one cares about Palin and whether she is a feminist or whatever. She is an idiot. Enough already. Get on to something worth while. Stop milking this old BS.

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James A. Swanson
"The Bush League of Nations"
www.bushleagueofnations.com [For FREE download of entire book]

In these troubled times, I rely upon nitwits like Gov. Sarah Palin and Gov. Rod Blagojevich to provide much needed humor.

Fortunately, the GOP will keep Palin around for us. Unfortunately, the Dems are getting rid of that fine comic Blago for no good reason.

There’s a rumor—which I’m now launching—that these two soul mates are planning a spring wedding. I’m so happy for them.

Isn’t the mutual love of flamboyant hair a good indicator of marital compatibility?

In any case—and with apologies to Carl Sandburg—I offer a six-line poem about these two:

The Bug Was Hid in Blago’s Hair”

The bug was hid in Blago’s hair.
Fitzgerald thus did not play fair.
As for the hair, I do not care,
Be it Blago, or Palin fair.
But when one looks beneath the hair,
For Rod and Sarah, nothing’s there.

by James A. Swanson, Los Altos, CA

"The Bush League of Nations"
www.bushleagueofnations.com [for FREE download of entire book]

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Didn't agree with her Republican views but at least she gave us women the power to feel a bit more proud going to work in shorts and/or short skirts and feel proud of it !

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Sarah Palin represents a new wave of independent conservative women marrying "traditional values" with corporate economics.
She represents a new wave? Independent conservative women marrying traditional values?
I can't believe that anyone can write such nonsense.
What traditional values are you talking about?
Values like honesty, an appreciation of intelligence, independent thinking are traditional values, of which Palin has none, and it seems neither do you, Abby Scher, by making such idiotic statements.

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She is such a nothing twit.

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their Demigod Ronald Reagan was a wife and political party swapping, B rated, snitch, and senile to boot.

Palin was pregnant before getting married, like mother like daughter.

You can include the multiple martial infidelities of Henry Hyde, Bob Barr, Newt Gingrich, Tom Foley, John Livingston, Larry Craig and a host of other prominent Republicans.

There championing of deregulation, free markets less government and spending have all proven a farce when they bloat the size of government and its wasteful spending with trillions of $'s spent, billions unaccounted for while millions of innocent are killed.

Have to bail out the market on more borrowed $'s that your successive generations of "Loved Ones" will only be paying a fraction on the interest of the total debt accrued under the past 3 GOP administrations.

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Palin, is an uneducated, stupid & very inept women that is an excelent example of what the republican party truly represents; selfcentered, brainless, stupid sheep, that have one objective; to rape this country and the world for their personal vanity & self interests. They surly deserve to die a very painfull death...

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She epitomizes the reason why most women have abortions, and insults them at the same time. How many women out there can have a child and walk off and leave it when he's three days old? For a 'career' or any other reason. That's the reason why some women just can't have a baby. Someone should explain that to her. Most of us are just not as selfish as she is. I'm tired of looking at her. ANNA

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Does she really need your help?

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I kicked off this thread with a throw-away post and walked away. I seriously believed it wouldn't develop into a discussion. I was surprised to return 24 hours later to find that a few people actually have managed to muster more than a cursory "what ever" about the Queen of the Uterus Gestapo. Ironically most of the posts say: "don't empower her ignore her" while they don't ignore her.
Palin in 2012? Are you kidding me? The Mk.47-misogynist?!
Okay, if they insist I say: Oh PLEASE, pppllease, p-l-e-a-s-e let them run her! She will be the final nail in the R's coffin. Does anybody seriously think that NUT-JOB will ever be a credible candidate? Come on! Sure the extreme religio's will support her but by 2012 Rove will be in prison so she won't have his machine behind her. And furthermore that filthy liar has so many skeletons in her closet that she can be undone in a handful of news cycles. Mittens Romney will see to that. Please! I soooooooooo hope they run her in 2012. What a gift that would be!

I think it's safe to say that the American electorate has grown up a few notches. I don't think that a wink and a smile (one that is not dissimilar to Bush's smarmy little grin) will cut it any longer.
America has K.O and now Rachel Maddow (love her Scrub-Rinse-Repeat ) and we're listening! Between now and 2012 we will have had a good taste of change and I predict that we're gonna like it enough to want seconds.
Furthermore, I seriously doubt that even with 24 hour a day rehabilitation they will ever manage a Pygmalion-style transformation on "that one". You can take the idiot out of Hicksville but you can never get the hick out of the idiot. She will always be "the ex-beauty-queen-with-a-gun and we will run from her like a heard of caribou.
Rest assured, Shannyne Moore (great Alaskan talk radio personality) is up there "dogging her ass. With any luck she'll fizzle out after this governorship and AT WORST end up over at Fox Spews.

http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/

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Sarah Palin is to feminism as Fox's "Red Eye" is to comedy.

However, Sarah Palin is to comedy as ketchup is to fries.

http://jackrabbitcafe.blogspot.com

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Please freeze any and all to do with this
ill-educated, irrelevant, political flop!

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When Sarah Palin came in second, not first, in the Miss Alaska beauty contest, she told a friend that she had lost because she had failed to create enough drama around herself---her own words. If you pay attention, you see that she's learned how to remediate that failing. Add to that, it's in the interest of the social conservatives to keep Sarah Palin on the front burner if they expect to run her for public office in the future. Notice that once or twice a week we now have some kind of Sarah Palin news. If you happen to think that Palin would be a disaster for this country, the best thing to do when more Palin news is unrolled is say "Ho Hum" and open a good book.

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Jealousy, cattyness, etc ad nauseum.

Is it any wonder most males think women are inferior??

Give the girl some credit.......none of you have achieved Governor status.

Such bitchiness..............really.

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She might make a mildly interesting foot note in history, but otherwise has no relevance whatsoever.

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I WILL CONTINUE TO BELIEVE THAT IF THIS WOMAN WERE A) FAT B) HOMELY C)OLD (D) A REAL FEMINIST THE WINGNUTS WOULD HATE HER--AND IF SHE WERE A DEMOCRAT HER DAUGHTER'S OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BABY WOULD BE THE PRIMARY TOPIC OF THEIR YAMMERING. PERSONALLY I THINK HER 15 MINUTES IS UP!

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E-X-A-C-T-L-Y shd1230!
A woman on this thread actually wrote:

Didn't agree with her Republican views but at least she gave us women the power to feel a bit more proud going to work in shorts and/or short skirts and feel proud of it !

I couldn't fathom this- still can't.

Now, if Palin instead had:
given us women the power to feel a bit more proud going to work with unshaved legs, unwaxed (infantilized) crotches and a pair of pants or what ever we're comfortable wearing ...that MIGHT be something I could talk about.
But I can't talk about that woman with a straight face when people insist on putting lipstick on a freaken pig.

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I was so inspired by the idea of mixing conservatism with feminism that I created the website RedStateFeminists right after McCain picked Palin for his VP choice.

It's my belief that feminism is the ultimate conservatism, and that Palin killed off the misogynist wing of the conservatives as well as the Blue State ideological monopoly on feminism. What a breath of liberty to kill off both those old dragons in one fell swoop!

Want to see if you are a Red State Feminist? Take this QUIZ

Red State Gal
RedStateFeminists

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"Femwashing." We have greenwashing--a term for companies that pretend to be green but are not.

I'm now coining the term, "Femwashing" for right wing-nuts who try to disguise their behavior as feminist when, in fact, they are only trying to advance a fascist, oppressive agenda.

She ain't foolin' no one. At least not anyone with a brain! LOL!

~The Lioness

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The GOP has deliberated gingered up this woman in order to create the impression that it is actually possible to combine a no-abortion, big-family situation with a high-powered career.

It is NOT possible for any more than a tiny handful of special-situation women to do this. Even Palin could not have made it through the corporate world with all those kids and the constant risk of a new pregnancy. The child care bill when they were small would have put her out of the workforce and she would never have been able to get back in at a high level.

This is the reality that the right wants to mislead right-leaning women, especially young ones, about.

Sarah Palin is a mirage, an actess, a poseur. But, right-leaning women are grabbing onto the fantasy that they can satisfy everyone at the same time -- they can home-school 5 kids, be open to an unintended pregnancy at any time, be a traditional wife and STILL succeed in the corporate world.

Won't work.

The idea that this is possible is a dangerous lie. Millions of women's careers will be shredded by the attempt to combine that with uncontrolled, unsupported, largely-solitary motherhood.

We need to face the fact that only in a world where men share fully half the responsibility for childrearing, child support is universal and fully collected and families are very small and very well-planned (using abortion if necessary) will women ever achieve anything close to economic equality.

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All the jobs Republicans like for females are only some other version of making a living on sex.

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