Sarah Palin: Senator, Author…Feminist?

Oh, Sarah Palin. Between signing multiple book deals, getting your own show on TLC, and watching your daughter exploit her last 15 minutes of fame on “Dancing with the Stars”, it amazes me that you’ve still found the time to found a “new, conservative feminist movement”.

Wait, what?

“New, conservative feminist movement”? Call me crazy, but does”conservative feminist” seem like an oxymoron to you (kind of like “Sarah Palin book deal”)? Now, I understand that some people would argue that any person who has the nerves to call themselves a feminist deserves to be accepted by the movement. I, however, disagree. I’m not saying that feminism should by any means be an elitist movement, but to call someone with the convoluted, backwards, and anti-woman ideals that Sarah Palin holds a feminist is, well, wrong. Batshit crazy, even.

Granted, there are many, many forms of feminism, and no one has to be chosen to represent your entire belief system. And I’m certainly not the metaphorical feminist bouncer who gets to decide who’s in and who’s out of the movement. But the fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin’s politics are inherently anti-woman because they restrict the freedom of choice a woman has over her own body. Because of this, her politics cannot be aligned with feminist ideology of any sort. Furthermore, saying that anyone who wants to call themselves a feminist is automatically a feminist makes the word meaningless, and simply adapting a label doesn’t make it true; I can call myself an astronaut all damn day, but that doesn’t make me an astronaut.

Palin’s supposedly pro-woman platform is insincere and convoluted at best. Take this quote from her:

“The mama grizzlies, they rise up…[they] can give their child life, in addition to pursuing career and education and avocations. Society wants to tell these young women otherwise. These feminist groups want to tell these women that, ‘No, you’re not capable of doing both.’ “

Again, what?! Feminism has been telling women they should be able to do exactly that. And that it should be their choice to do any of those things. And it actually examines the sociopolitical constructs that make achieving more than one of those things so incredibly difficult (constructs like, I don’t know, unequal distribution of wealth, and unequal access to birth control, lack of a comprehensive sex education, unequal access to affordable childcare, expensive health insurance premiums…all policies she has endorsed in one way or another). Also, you can’t adopt a label and talk shit about it at the same time, Sarah. Are you among these aforementioned “feminist groups” or not?

When it comes down to it, Sarah Palin’s feminism is not feminism at all, but a misconstrued and convoluted attempt to cover up an innately anti-woman agenda with a traditionally pro-woman facade. Now after all that, everyone say it with me, one more time, all together now: Sarah Palin is NOT a feminist.