In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

The Answer to Your Question is “No.”

Jill

The New Agenda founder Amy Siskind asks, “Should Women Back Palin in 2012?” And yes, she appears to be serious.

Siskin argues that Obama hasn’t been all that great for women, so we should take a chance on Sarah. Because, you know, Palin is a woman. And she played college basketball. And this one time she appointed a pro-choice judge.

I wish I were kidding, but Siskind literally says, “I know I’ll hear from critics who claim that Palin would not share my policy views. But what makes them so sure?”

Um… Palin’s own words?

Sarah Palin has made it clear that despite her own success, she has very little interest in promoting women’s rights. She is anti-choice. She favors abstinence-only education. She is a classic social conservative. She is not a feminist; she is not a proponent of women’s rights.

She is also not the only female politician out there. If our goal is to get more women into office — and that is certainly a laudable goal — then why not work for women who actually represent our views? It’s not like there’s a shortage of smart, involved, passionate feminist women out there. Promoting Palin just seems like the worst kind of pandering, since it’s clearly not about her intellect, her integrity, her talent or her progressive values. It’s about her status, simply, as a woman. And when it comes to being dishonest, corrupt, anti-intellectual, anti-feminist and self-promoting at all costs, women are just as capable as men. Sarah Palin is nothing if not proof of that.

When we’re 50 percent of the country, surely we can do better.

29 thoughts on The Answer to Your Question is “No.”

  1. I couldn’t read all of her post. I got to the part where she says she’s a lifelong Democrat but voted Repubican in 2008 because an actual woman was on the ticket.

    It’s hard to know how to respond. Vote for her just becaue she’s a woman??? Margaret Thatcher is a woman also and England is still trying to recover from her.

    Goddess help us if Palin ever reaches a position of power–on a par intellectually with George W. Bush, she’s anti-abortion, anti-enviroment, anti-gay marriage, pro-gun, and pro-war. How’s that for an agenda?

  2. I had a “spit out the coffee” moment reading this. Siskind referred to Palin as a centrist. Huh? Palin is as popular as she is with the Republican base because she represents the far right. I’m not sure which policy positions Siskind is referring to in making that claim, but I can’t think of a single policy position (though I’m sure one or two must exist) in which Palin takes a more centrist viewpoint.

  4. Even if I was American, there is no way I would ever vote for Sarah Palin. In fact, over here in Britain somebody like her wouldn’t even get to be an MP, let alone a head of state. I hope.

    To be fair, my main reason for disliking Sarah Palin is the fact that she is apparently a young-Earth creationist. I don’t think I could ever support someone who ignores massive amounts of evidence like that- I certainly wouldn’t want them in charge of a country. We all saw how that turned out over weapons of mass destruction.

    Having said that, her attitude towards other women does make me want to smack her in the face. Any woman who votes for Palin is uneducated about their own rights and most likely about politics. I’m sure the vast majority of conservative women don’t take things to the crazy extremes Sarah Palin does, so why vote for her just because she has a vagina?

  5. Women in this county can certainly do better than Sarah Palin. While women on aggregate are more progressive than men, no matter what side of the political spectrum they fall on, Sarah Palin as an individual does not represent this trend at all. Echoing Gembird, with so many amazing women at high levels of government (Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, Hilda Solis, etc.) why would progressive women settle for Palin because she has two X chromosomes? Totally ludicrous. As for getting MORE great women in at the ground level of politics- check out She Should Run , a program to nominate women to run for office and give them some of the resources they need to give it thought.

  6. I’m not one of those people who went ga-ga over Obama–I never thought he was all that liberal and I do think some of his supporters used really misogynist rhetoric against HRC. Having said that, I’d sonner vote for a dead rat than Sarah Palin–I absolutely disagree with her on matters of policy, especially policies that affect ME. I can disagree with her AND call out any sexism thrown her way. Funny how that works.

  7. “Even if I was American, there is no way I would ever vote for Sarah Palin. In fact, over here in Britain somebody like her wouldn’t even get to be an MP, let alone a head of state. I hope.”

    Two words, Nadine Dorries

  8. Wow, Palin sounds great and I will totally support her in 2012. Right on Siskind, i am glad she is speaking out about supporting a woman for President in 2012. It’s unfortunate the woman she is talking about shares a name with a woman who is on camera saying women should stop complaining about the glass ceiling and double treatment women politicians receive. That women then had the gall to complain about the treatment she received as a conservative.

    Oh….wait. That’s the same Sarah Palin? Really? She’s saying women should support Sarah “Yes there’s a double standard but stop complaining about it” Palin? I’m lost.

  9. I was wondering when you would get a response to this up and I’m glad to see it. It makes me feel better about life when I have places to turn to on the internet after I read something incredibly stupid on the internet.

  10. I am staunchly against voting for more or less anyone who currently holds a public office. Down with incumbency!

  11. Actually, you’re probably more than 50% of the voting population of the country, especially when factoring in states who disenfranchise felons, since men make up an overwhelming majority of that population.

    Sarah Palin’s base is not women, but those of my gender who think it’d be cool to vote for the attractive female candidate. Honestly, if she gets elected, we should repeal any portion of the Constitution affording men the voting franchise.

    Mrs. Palin is physically attractive and politically talented in that grievance-bearing, angst-filled, ugly-side-of-populism sort of way. Thankfully, that’s never been enough on its own to win a Presidential election. But there’s a first time for everything, I suppose.

  15. I was pretty amazed that any woman voter imprinted on Palin like some sort of pseudofeminist soft-monkey, even in the wake of Hillary’s loss to Obama.

    But now? Hasn’t she proven her incompetence? As well as her deep-seated hatred for women? Obama’s conservative, but she’s a batshit wingnut.

    And has anyone forgotten that even batshit wingnuts didn’t especially want her on their ticket? She’s not good at winning national elections.

  16. What progressives, including feminists, should do if they (we) are dissatisfied with Obama/the Democrats is what we should have been doing all along. Some of us, but not nearly enough of us, have been doing this at least to a certain extent. And that is to support and vote for REAL progressive candidates like those of the Green Party. People like Cynthia McKinney (2008 presidential candidate) and Ralph Nader (2000 and 2004 presidential candidate) who are solidly FOR progressive causes and who are not bought and owned by corporate campaign money.

    We at the grassroots of the various progressive causes (feminism, civil rights and liberties, environmentalism, peace, LGBT, and etc) need to put pressure on the leaders of the large mainstream organizations that represent these causes (Nat’l Organization for Women, ACLU, Sierra Club, Human Rights Campaign, etc) to stop supporting sellout Democrats and instead to support and endorse Greens and other real progressives. This will build a critical mass for Green and other real progressive candidates and change their public image from that of “spoilers who have no chance to win” to “real contenders.”

    What will get us NOWHERE, except maybe back many steps from where we want to be, is the fatally flawed logic of people like Amy Siskind. What her argument seems to be is: “because we are dissatisfied with the lesser of two evils (Obama and the Democrats) let’s vote for the greater of two evils (Palin and the Republicans) just because they nominated a woman.”

    How about we start supporting and voting for parties and candidates that are actually GOOD for once??? Gee, what a novel concept that would be!

  17. “I am staunchly against voting for more or less anyone who currently holds a public office. Down with incumbency!”

    Amen.

  18. Not only is Palin anti-women’s rights, but she is also terribly incompetent. She’d make a horrible president from an objective standpoint, and she would reverse women’s progress by being a terrible First Female President. After her, who would ever want to vote for another woman again? That was one of the things that scared me most about her candidacy for VP. Aside from the fact that she is against what I believe in, she would really ruin it for our gender as a whole. Clinton, meanwhile, would have done a decent enough job for people to say, “ok, so maybe women can hold the highest office.”

  19. I can decide what bothers me more: the fact that the woman is eye-bleedingly incompetent or that she has a bunch of policy positions I can’t abide.

    Perhaps this is the day to take Door 1 and Door 2.

  20. “Margaret Thatcher is a woman also and England is still trying to recover from her.”

    I very much second the above sentiment and, like everyone else here, am amazed that anyone could consider Palin a reasonable feminist option.

    But, can I please point something out? It may seem like a minor point to most of you, but for millions of people it really, really isn’t: “England” is not a synonym for “UK” or “Great Britain.” Every time you use it that way, you’re erasing the identities of those millions who are British but not English.

    If only Thatcher had limited her destruction to England! Not that that would be in itself good (though it really is the English who tend to vote Conservative), but at least the other parts of the UK wouldn’t also still be suffering the after effects.

  21. A disturbing number of GOP insiders probably look at Palin and think: “Well, she’s already got the charisma, celebrity, and the audience. She’s in the papers every week! All we have to do is train her to not say so much stupid shxt and then we’ll have a frontrunner.” Because really, those are just details.

  22. I don’t understand. She voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 because there was a woman on the ticket? If that is her only criteria, it would have made more sense (and been far more ethical) to vote for McKinney/Clemente on the Green Party line, both of whom are women.

  23. I recall a quote about Thatcher, “She may be a woman, but she ain’t no sister.”

    I would put Palin in the same category. Biologically female, but that’s about it.

  24. Wow. Obama doesn’t represent my beliefs as well as I’d like, but he doesn’t actively oppose them, either. I’d love a woman candidate I could really support in 2012, but I’m not going to vote for an ultra-conservative just because she’s female.

  25. There’s no reason to pay attention to Palin. She’s finished politically. She doesn’t have the brains, the skills, or the stamina necessary to succeed. (And unlike W, she doesn’t have the family background and connections to cover her deficiencies). Margaret Thatcher, politics and policies aside, proved she was as capable, skilled and tough as anyone in UK politics and on the world stage in her era. Whatever she was, she was no light-weight. Palin, whatever she is, is nothing but a light-weight.

  26. “But, can I please point something out? It may seem like a minor point to most of you, but for millions of people it really, really isn’t: “England” is not a synonym for “UK” or “Great Britain.” Every time you use it that way, you’re erasing the identities of those millions who are British but not English.

    If only Thatcher had limited her destruction to England! Not that that would be in itself good (though it really is the English who tend to vote Conservative), but at least the other parts of the UK wouldn’t also still be suffering the after effects.”

    Indeed, the Welsh in particular are known for their Labour voting patterns, unfortunately that has recently changed despite Wales being one of the areas most deeply hit by Thatcher’s policy rampage.

    It always irritates me that people refer to the UK or Great Britain as England. The Welsh and Scots are fiercely protective of their national identities and with good reason and lumping us all together as English is insulting.

  27. Roxsie, I think that also has a lot to do with the fact there are a lot of English people living in Wales. I still can’t see Wales going over to the Tories, though I might have a nasty shock in few months’ time.

  28. Sarah Palin belongs to a religious movement that advocates theocracy. She lies. She is inarticulate. She does not read. She uses her innocent children as political props. She quit as Governor as soon as she realized that she could make more money from a ghost-written book.

    If she becomes either President or Vice President, I am finally taking advantage of a friend’s generous offer of sponsorship and moving to New Brunswick.

  29. Pingback: Interesting posts, weekend of 10/11 « Feminists with Female Sexual Dysfunction

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