So, Salon.com…<\/p>\n
I mentioned them before, and there are so many examples of new journalistic atrocities that I hesitate to even bring them to my reader’s attention.<\/p>\n
However, this<\/a>\u00a0piece by Rebecca Traister struck me because of it’s introspection, unique\u00a0 among the screedy panic. She professes to hold\u00a0long cherished feminist beliefs, but takes stock about how this<\/em>\u00a0female is different:<\/p>\n \u00a0I’m…startled by how Palin herself is testing my own beliefs about how I react to women in power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Good…baby steps…<\/p>\n My feelings about Palin have everything to do with her gender — a factor that I have always believed, as a matter of course, should neither amplify nor diminish impressions of a person’s goodness or badness, smartness or dumbness, gravitas or inconsequence. Why are my rules changing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n AHA! Is this the psychological breakthrough moment? Is this moment of honest introspection going to lead to greater acceptance and healthy broad-mindedness?<\/p>\n Wait, she goes deeper into her conflict:<\/p>\n In this strange new pro-woman tableau, feminism — a word that is being used all over the country with regard to Palin’s potential power — means voting for someone who would limit reproductive control, access to healthcare and funding<\/span><\/a> for places like Covenant House Alaska, an organization that helps unwed teen mothers. It means cheering someone who allowed women to be charged for their rape kits<\/span><\/a> while she was mayor of Wasilla, who supports the teaching of creationism alongside evolution, who has inquired locally about the possibility of using her position to ban children’s books from the public library, who does not support the teaching of sex education.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let it out, Rebecca. That’s it! define what you find so contradictory. By acknowledging how very different this feminist’s beliefs are from your own, you can more thoroughly accept the diversity of females and therefore female empowerment…!<\/p>\n Palin’s femininity is one that is recognizable to most women: She’s the kind of broad who speaks on behalf of other broads but appears not to like them very much. The kind of woman who…achieves her power by doing everything modern women believed they did not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. It works because these stances do not upset antiquated gender norms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n oh…I’m so disappointed. Rebecca, Rebecca…Nobody said you had to be maternal and sexual, if you don’t want to be. But please understand, many women\u00a0choose to be those things because they want to all by themselves. I know that your university’s masters degree program told you otherwise, but that was just an ivory tower not where real people live.<\/p>\n It’s not sucking up to men to follow your natural inclinations. And it is every woman’s right to speak up for what she believes is right. It’s every PERSON’S right to speak for what they believe. Even if it’s not what you believe.<\/p>\n You know what the music means…I’ll see you next week. We’ll talk more about how other people can have different opinions than yours and it’s still okay. And you can tell me more about your dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, Salon.com… I mentioned them before, and there are so many examples of new journalistic atrocities that I hesitate to even bring them to my reader’s attention. However, this\u00a0piece by Rebecca Traister struck me because of it’s introspection, unique\u00a0 among … Continue reading