Sep 11, 2008

Oh Sweet Debate thy Essence is too Alluring, I Yield and Permit Myself to Find Fire in Your Company Again

My favorite Exceprt from the Salon article
Zombie feminists of the RNC
How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?
By Rebecca Traister


"...It's true that the last time I had this kind of visceral yearning for a politician to save the day was on the evening of Sept. 11, when the only person whose face I wanted to see on my television was Bill Clinton's. Perhaps when the Clintons took office in my 18th year, they became imprinted on my brain as my presidential parent-figures, my ur-protectors. But it's hard not to notice that if that's the case, it's Bill I want to nurture and soothe me, and Hillary I want to show up, guns blazing Ripley-style, to surprise the mother alien just as she is about to feast on independent voters, protectively shouting, "Get away from them, you bitch!"

There I go again with the hyper-feminized anxieties. I think it's mostly that I want Hillary Clinton -- the imperfect history maker whose major selling points for "First Woman..." status, in retrospect, included the fact that she was not a Republican, not pro-life, did not believe in teaching creationism alongside evolution, had never inquired about the feasibility of banning books, understood the American economy, supported universal healthcare and did not kill wolves from planes -- to make Sarah Palin go away and stop threatening to make history I don't want to see made.

It is infuriating that Clinton, her supporters and, yes, also those Obama supporters who voiced their displeasure at the sexist treatment Clinton sometimes received, and also female voters, and also females full stop, are being implicated in feminism's bastardization..."

















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Also, yes I took down my new diatribe, from the other day. I'm still sorting out where I sit and how I feel about it. I suppose I'm not comfortable leaving it up because I keep flip flopping in my own mind on the subject depending on what day you ask me and what I read last and so I didn't feel like it was exactly fair for me to leave it up if I wasn't 100% behind it.

What I am 100% sure of is this, I am voting D, because I miss prosperity and peace and because I think we should help each other. If I have bread and you need some, have some of mine.


2 comments:

Debbie said...

I am absolutely appalled that Sarah Palin is potentially the first woman in the White House. Hillary was not the warm and fuzzy nurturer that many of us wanted, but she is smart as hell and has a vision for our country that is in line with mine.

The Republican party's pick to get the female vote is downright insulting. Like just because Palin has a vagina, that automatically means I'll vote for her, even though she represents the kind of short-sighted ignorance that causes so many people around the world to hate Americans. I swear, if the "mavericks" get elected, I'm moving to France.

Jenny said...

I'll move with you.