I am angry at Sarah Palin. No – to be fair & more to the point – I am mad at John McCain & his choice of SP for VP. I am angry at the idea of Sarah Palin. Because of her nomination I have yelled at one friend & been reduced to tears by another.
Feminism is personal. This election is personal.
The first friend wrote something about Palin & I “loudly” in an e-mail informed this friend that I was sick of hearing about the woman & couldn’t handle reading or discussing anything about her. It was a heated e-mail. Not my best moment. But it was honest. This friend accidentally got in the way of my own personal war with SP’s nomination.
The second friend this weekend asked me what the problem was with feminists & Palin. As carefully & gingerly as I could, I explained my personal feminist views on the subject knowing that this friend was a conservative republican. Yes – I have such a friend. A friend, a friendship that I value. This friend’s response to me was to basically accuse me of being a “so-called feminist” guilty of being blinded by feminist ideology.
The first friendship, due to kind understanding, has survived. I have been forgiven. The other friendship is holding on by a frayed thread at best. I have been a feminist since I was 13 years old. No kidding. Well over 30 years later - to be called a “so-called feminist” – there is nothing that a friend could say to me that would wound me more & bring tears to my eyes. These words were not said to me in jest.
Now lest this post cast me as a drooping female who can’t take the heat, who gets the vapors all too easily & who needs to lighten up – remember what I said. Feminism is personal. For female feminists especially, this election is hard – extremely hard. Maintaining objectivity & clarity of mind – which is so important – is hard. Not impossible, but it is hard. I honestly & frankly admit it.
At work last week I met with some colleagues about what we could do as a group to respond to the SP nomination from the feminist point of view before the election. It was a light-hearted meeting on the surface. Sarcastic remarks filled the air. Sarcasm laced with barely suppressed frustration & dread of what might be. There were men present at this meeting – a stronger sign of the hope for feminism than SP’s nomination could ever aspire to be. If men keep appearing as fellow feminists at meetings of feminists then the times
I've begun to hear from life-long Republicans: the kind that blame Bill Clinton for the current financial fiasco and fear that Obama is a communist. They're telling me that they feel slapped in the face by the Republican party because of her nomination and because of the way her candidacy is being handled.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a few are beginning to understand that to oppose women's rights is to oppose everyone's rights. I think it's also seen by some that to offer such a grossly inappropriate candidate is to say: "here, you wanted a woman and this is the best we could find." It's cynically condescending and insulting to all of us.
Yes, Fogg, it is indeed. To us ALL.
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