"The nomination of Sarah Palin for vice president is a big step forward for women, but a long backward step for the movement we have been taught to call feminism. That is obvious from the anguish, indeed the fury, of feminist commentators. They are so intemperate in their criticism that they are incoherent. Men who are clueless about feminism naively think all women should be cheering. Sarah Palin is a woman who has done it all; she has a successful and even more promising career, five children and a supportive husband.She crashed through the ultimate layer of the feminist fiction -the "glass ceiling" - and she joined those very few women destined to be known only by their first names. What more could any woman want?"
Phyllis, you braindead old bag. SaWah didn't crash through any ceiling, glass or otherwise. Her nomination was like the dark side of affirmative action run wild -- she was chosen because of her gender, not in spite of it, to get those disgruntled Hillary votes. Not because she had the skills and qualifications for the job, but because her lack thereof meant she'd never challenge Presidaddy McCain. She adds nothing to the ticket but an extra "X" chromosome and an extremist ideology that will deliver a few million votes from the cataclysmically stupid religious right, who while Wall Street burns and war metastasizes into nuclear-armed Pakistan, fret about other peoples' sex lives. But on
ward. Schlafly can't resist a dig at Gloria Steinem:
"When Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to get the Democratic nomination for president or vice president, she and her allies rained a torrent of tears all over the media about the injustice of it all, ranting that rampant sexism denied her the nomination she was due. The aging Gloria Steinem opined on CNN that it is "clear that there is profound sexism." She whined that Hillary couldn't crack the "glass ceiling" because there are "still barriers and biases out there." (emphasis mine)
The "aging Gloria Steinem"? I'll gladly respond to that vacuous little jab in kind. Steinem (pictured above left) and Schlafly (top of post) are both mature women, not too far apart in age, but wow, look at them -- I know which one I'd rather be! Okay, onward:
"The feminists resent Sarah because she's the exact opposite of Hillary Clinton.... Sarah didn't need any Equal Rights Amendment, which Hillary is still promoting even though it was declared dead by the Supreme Court 26 years ago."
That's right. When you're appointed without credentials by God, the Oil Industry and the War Pimps, who needs Equal Rights? And though I can't speak for everyone, I know that's one of the main reasons I resent Palin -- because she got the nomination handed to her like a free pass, just for being a fundie and a woman, and in spite of her own virulently anti-woman policies. It's reverse sexism at its worst -- but I wouldn't expect a misogynist crackpot like Schlafly to understand that.
UPDATE: Antonia Z weighs in... money quote:
"No, Palin did not ''crash'' through the glass ceiling. She got a leg up by a bunch of Republican backroom boys who knew that they needed an extremist on the ticket to placate the right-wing Republicans who had their doubts about McCain's conservative credentials. She also was a cynical attempt to win over white Democrat women who were disaffected by Hillary Clinton's being left off the ticket.
A ''crash'' through the ceiling leaves a hole through which other women may follow, and chip away some more.
But Palin believes in nothing that will improve women's chances of making it."
Tru dat!
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