Is not what I'm intending this blog to be. Nonetheless, between Palin lashing out at the Newsweek cover as "sexist" and The Guardian writing an article about Michelle Bachman ("The new wave of female firebrands striking fear into the heart of liberal America") I just couldn't resist. It's like a mild ongoing irritation, somewhat similar to eczema--an itch that begs to be scratched.
Anyway. It makes my little women's head spin when I consider these two radical Christians (let's not call them conservatives, because they do not want to conserve anything, they want to make things other than what they are, to make reality conform to some fantastic fiction in their mind of What Should Be and How People Should Act) get to have it both ways. Not in a fun, sexy way, although since they are Christian Republicans, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out they were having things many, many ways, but the whole "Women's libbers have ruined Merka and motherhood and killed babies" sacred-unchanging-gender-roles thing, coexisting with getting to scream sexism about any criticism leveled at them. Nonononononono, you don't get to do that! You think people should be sexist! You think people should be defined by their gender and sexual orientation! You can't (Sarah Palin) take advantage of your femininity (you think Bill Kristol liked you for your appreciation of French film and your subtle critique of Nietzsche's Wille zur Macht? Think again, sister) and then be all offended when people comment on your looks and femininity. If you weren't all about having it both ways, you wouldn't have dragged your kids, Basket, Hamper, and Window, hither and yon to prove that you were a nice, soft, vagina-endowed American and not a scaaaaary, mean, castrating and possibly secret-penis-having lady like Hillary.
In short, as I may have mentioned in this blog one or a hundred times before, it is just so irritating (scratch scratch scratch) that these women who are themselves power hungry harpies walk through the doors that the women's movement and women themselves have pried open and then just shit on everything the women's movement has stood for and done. Like they would have gotten where they are without the women's movement. Like Sarah Palin would have been anything but a question in Alaskan Trivial Pursuit if it wasn't for Hilary Rodham Clinton and her hard work and accomplishments. It was Hillary who scared the Republicans enough to even think about nominating a woman, and Hilary has paid the price for being who she is--a tough, highly educated, highly achieving, non-cookie baking woman--over and over again. The scrutiny and insults that Hillary has endured are a price that Palin is unwilling to pay. She wants her medals of honor without having ever seen battle. I call bullshit.
Update: Here's a quote from Going Rogue that I would have added to my "Actual Student Quotes" list, had it been turned in to me: "In national politics, some feel that Big Business is always opposed to the Little Guy. Some people seem to think a profit motive is inherently greedy and evil, and that what's good for business is bad for people. (That's what Karl Marx thought too.)" And everyone knows that Karl Marx was wrong about everything!
And, yes, I fixed the spelling of Hillary's name.
No comments:
Post a Comment