Saturday, September 6, 2008

Pro-family feminism

I like that description of Palin - a lot.

Sarah Palin represents a more nuanced version of feminism and conservatism than we've seen represented thus far in the media and popular culture. I suspect it's not really that new; many women - conservative, liberal and in between - were already living a version of it anyway: Pro-family feminism.

The old stereotypical feminism: Career women who saw marriage, family, and even men themselves, as representing patriarchal shackles that needed to be thrown off. Fathers weren't really necessary as they were instruments of the aforementioned patriarchal oppression. Women's equality revolved around loyalty to one key issue: A pro-abortion stance. I know some women who embraced this position only to live to regret it in their late 30s, when they realized that they really did, in fact, want kids.

The old stereotypical conservatism: Women had only one acceptable choice; stay home and raise the kids or you were a "bad mother."

Sarah's new pro-family feminism: Let women decide how to best balance their own lives (in conjunction with their partners). If they choose, women can have equality and careers and a husband and kids. If they choose, women can stay home to raise their kids. Neither choice should be condemned. The husband is an equal partner in the child rearing; in some cases (First Dude?), the man may assume more of the child-rearing duties as the woman ascends the career ladder. Opposing abortion doesn't make a woman anti-woman.

Men can comfortably embrace pro-family feminism because it doesn't devalue them. Men are important; fathers matter. Female equality doesn't diminish males' importance in their own families and children's lives.

I think it's great if Palin-supporting conservatives are adopting pro-family feminism (or maybe had already embraced it with scant media attention). I think it's sad that a lot of liberal feminists are moving toward, ironically, the old stereotypical conservative position regarding women's roles in society - at least when it comes to Sarah Palin.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may want to review Andy's popular blog (andrewsullivan.com). He has many posts on Gov. Palin. He supports Obama of course.

Anonymous said...

AMEN!

The Speculative Bio-Tech Investor said...

Perhaps, you could look no further to Sarah Palin herself when she calls Hillary Clinton a whiner about sexism.

Video is below:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

And now, Sarah Palin is crying and pulling the same "victimization card" that she called Hillary Clinton out for? Take a page out of John Kerry circa 2004 -- being against before you're for it!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card

Anonymous said...

Sarah Palin hasn't lodged the sexism charge herself though

The Speculative Bio-Tech Investor said...

The McCain Campaign has 'lodged' and so has Carly Fiorna -- Victory 08 Chair of the campaign and Palin is representative of that stance since she's part of the ticket..

Too bad they can't find so-called Obama-Biden Democrats who have supposedly gone after her family. What a poor call on her behalf. Palin should be ashamed of herself.

Oh yea and thanks to Palin for providing extra energy to all the Community Organizers of the USA to get out the vote. We now have record numbers in VA, NM, CO, IA. I guess they had responsibilities and did fulfill them.