I’m going to post here what I said over at Apostate’s:
I see Sarah Palin as an ordinary modern Republican woman with feminist leanings — about as feminist as Republicans get.
I do not think she’s evil, anymore than I think most ordinary Republicans are evil. I believe she — and they — are mistaken about many things. I do believe to some extent they are tools, because they’re misled.
To go beyond that, and paint all Republicans as fascists with black hearts of evil, is a mistake. I know it’s a mistake, because I — like most Americans — have Republicans in my family. Lots of them. I know these people. I know women like Sarah Palin. In fact, every time I see or hear Palin I think of a cousin of mine, who’s that same kind of conservative Republican go-getter woman.
We gain nothing for the cause of liberalism when we fail to see the humanity of everyone, including our political opponents.
Meanwhile, Erica Jong has a piece up in Huff Post in which she refers to Sarah Palin as “white trash” and a “redneck.”
If you really can’t figure out what’s wrong there, then you need to go back to remedial feminist class.
Some of Apostate’s commenters are saying things like “feminism doesn’t mean we support women just because they’re women.”
Actually, here’s what feminism means: it means we stick up for women against sexism no matter what, even when the women aren’t on our side politically.
All these soi-disant feminists who think that because they disagree with Palin politically, it’s okay to revile her and call her trash and attack her with misogyny and sexism — nope. Wrong. Sorry. That’s not how feminism works.
Posted by Violet in Comments that should have been posts, Election 2008
