I have loved Gloria Steinem for over 30 years. As a young girl growing up in a small town in Virginia, she represented everything I hoped I would be—smart, funny, stylish, sexy, and outspoken. I couldn’t wait to pick up a copy of Ms. Magazine and read about women’s achievements and discussions about fulfilling your dreams. Everyone knew I loved Gloria so much so that my high school friends nicknamed me "FiddleDeeDee" Steinem.
Feminism has always been about empowering people, men and women, to live the life they want, make the choices they want, and not have to ask permission to do so. Both genders owe Gloria and women like her so much.
So when Sarah Palin from the Phyllis Schlafly wing of the GOP was nominated for VP, I was disheartened. The GOP again insulted women by naming a woman that wants to tell you how to live your life. Just like Schlafly, Palin is more than happy to deny women their rights in the name of God and ideology.
But Gloria, didn’t let me down:
But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.
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Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message
Thanks, Gloria!