Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Have Conservative Women Stolen the Feminist Movement?

Posted By Lisa Richards On October 5, 2010 @ 10:00 am




Radical Feminists Claim Conservative Women Stole Feminism
Radical feminists claim conservative women stole feminism.  They are angry conservative women entered the political arena, insisting such women set bad examples to young girls.  How can woman strong, smart women set bad examples?  Isn’t that what feminists want: intellectual leadership?
Radical feminists believe conservative feminists harm the women’s movement: conservative women support marriage and they are pro-life.  But GOP candidates prove women can in fact do and have it all, yet radical feminists hate that idea, despite fighting for it the last 50 years.
Isn’t it time feminists get rid of the anger + genderless = brains persona?  Let young women see all women can rise to high powered leadership.  Why must young girls be taught marriage and children equal slavery?  Why brainwash girls into assuming traditional values are anti-women, when in fact, those are the core values that make them strong, capable leaders?
The Nation’s Jessica Valenti is furious; she makes conservative feminists like Sarah Palin out to be thieving anti-women.
Sarah Palin opposes abortion and comprehensive sex education…[and ] She…calls herself a feminist.  Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell… [says] allowing women to attend military academies ‘cripples the readiness of our defense’ and…wives should ‘graciously submit’ to their husbands… [while]…her website touts her ‘commitment to the women’s movement.’  Pundits who once mocked women’s rights activists as ugly bra burners are abuzz over the ‘new conservative feminism,’ and the Tea Party is lauding itself as a women’s movement.  The right once disparaged feminism as man- hating and baby-killing, but now ‘feminist’ is the must-have label for women on the right… Feminists are understandably horrified—the movement we’ve fought so hard for is suddenly being appropriated by the very people who are trying to dismantle it…the mainstream feminist movement’s instability and stalled ideology have made stealing it that much easier.  The failure of feminists to prop up the next generation of activists, and the focus on gender as the sole requisite for feminism, has led to a crisis of our own making.
Betsy Reed of The Nation is sick of the GOP conservative feminism as well, insisting this strange phenomena would cease to exist if the media would ignore conservative GOP candidates:
In the media spectacle that is the 2010 midterm elections, women of the GOP are playing starring roles…from Indian-American Nikki Haley’s triumph over her mudslinging male rivals for the GOP gubernatorial nod in South Carolina, to Carly Fiorina’s catty open-mic swipe at her opponent Barbara Boxer’s hair in the first-ever contest between two women for a California Senate seat, to WWF founder and Connecticut Senate hopeful Linda McMahon…to the daily dose of clips revealing Christine O’Donnell’s youthful preoccupations with witchcraft and masturbation.  Remember when politics was boring?
Would those be the years Americans we were told women must never consider marriage and children, smart women reject such horrors, marriage is servitude, children hamper women’s lives, destroying choice and freedom?  An entire group of women with married lives is proving all women have choices to be whatever they decide.  For that, conservative women are deemed thieves.
Valenti claims:
Conservative women have been trying to steal feminism for more than a decade… [fighting] for anti-women policies while identifying themselves as the ‘real’ feminists.  But their ‘pro-woman’ messaging didn’t garner national attention until actual feminists paved the way for them in the 2008 presidential election… [when] feminist icons and leaders of mainstream women’s organizations insisted that the only acceptable vote was for Hillary Clinton… most representative of the internal strife was a New York Times op-ed…by Gloria Steinem in which the icon wrote, ‘Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life…
Alleged pro-women-ers claim womanhood is restrictive, yet they display anger over Hillary’s run for office: it opened doors for conservative feminism!
Let’s get it straight darlings; we conservative ladies had conservative  Clair Boothe Luce,  who proved traditional women can run for office, long before Feminazis were gracious commitments in mother’s womb.  The Freidan Mystic’s abject hatred toward gender, marriage, and children is the constricting force against all women.
What happened to choice ladies?
Radical feminists hate Palin because she proves marriage and brains co-exist.  Rick Santorum compared Palin’s intellect to Clarence Thomas.  Leftist feminists should be thrilled; Palin is compared to male intellect.  Haven’t radical feminists fought to end the “it’s a man’s world” saying?
The problem is conservative ladies running for office are traditional women who are proud of their lives.  They are not male-bashing or angry about gender, they stand tall, confident, as brainy, savvy women, doing everything they want, and they are respected by men and women alike.
Valenti claims:
If the new wave of feminists—the leaders of small grassroots organizations across the country, the bloggers who are organizing hundreds of thousands of women online, the advocates for reproductive justice, racial equality and queer rights—aren’t recognized as the real advocates for women, then the future of the movement will be lost.
Heaven forbid women think for themselves!
New York Times columnists Anna Holmes and Rebecca Traister blame leftists for Sarah Palin emerging and “stealing feminism” from “progressives:”
In…24 months…Ms. Palin has enthralled pundits and journalists who devote countless television hours and column inches to her every Twitter message and Facebook update, while provoking outrage and exasperation from the left…The left should be outraged and exasperated by all this—Since the 2008 election, progressive leaders have done little to address the obvious national appetite for female leadership…they have done nothing to stop an anti-choice, pro-abstinence, socialist-bashing Tea Party enthusiast from becoming the 21st century symbol of American women in politics…progressives helped to give Ms. Palin her start; her political career was a natural outgrowth of feminist successes.
Valenti agrees:
By pushing a vote for Clinton on the basis of her gender alone, establishment feminists not only rehashed internal grievances—they opened the door for conservatives to demand support for Palin for the very same reason…feminist argument for Clinton gave credence to the GOP’s hope that the mere presence of a female on the ticket would deliver women’s votes.  Is it any wonder, then, that everyone from Palin’s supporters to the mainstream media was eager to paint the vice presidential candidate as a feminist?   If all it took was being a woman, well, then Palin was it!
After 50 years of the anti-woman Feminazi resentment; America has feminists representing all women.  Isn’t feminism about women’s choice?  Why can’t we have Hillary and Sarah?  Why not allow women to make up their own minds?
Holmes and Traister insist otherwise.  Palin “hijacked” feminism, destroying it by being a happily married wife and mother, possessing the “infuriating ability to put a new twist on feminism… Her new spin, of course, is that she does not support policies that move women forward…” and she is adored by “…a gang of Sarah-approved, maverick-y female politicians looking to “take back” America with “common-sense” solutions.”
The “common-sense solution” is happening.  Real women are taking back America.  Leftist’s con-jobs, claiming women must hate marriage, family, and  men in order to achieve anything in this world, have been disproven.
Valenti demands:
Women vote for their interests—not their gender or age—but they still want to see themselves represented.  If the only young women Americans see identified as ‘feminists’ are those on the right, we run the risk of losing the larger cultural battle and the many younger women who are seeking an answer to the mixed messages about what feminism really is…What’s most important to remember as we fight back against conservative appropriation is that the battle over who ‘owns’ the movement is not just about feminists; feminism’s future affects all American women…if we let the lie of conservative feminism stand—if real feminists don’t lay claim to the movement and outline their vision for the future—all of us will suffer.
Femifascists hurt young girls by closing the doors to all women.
Conservative feminists threaten Feminazies to the core, GOP ladies are real women, possessing educations, careers, and intact families.  They do it all, they have it all, and they love being women.

Article printed from NewsReal Blog: http://www.newsrealblog.com
URL to article: http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/10/05/have-conservative-women-stolen-the-feminist-movement/

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