Posts Tagged ‘feminism’

In Monday’s N&O, seventeen year old Jessica Williford’s op-ed claimed that Republican women will finally prove themselves the real decedents of our nation’s feminist forebears.

She cited all sorts of quotes from our founding mothers, which seem to support Jessica’s own clearly anti-choice views. Of course, it’s easy to pull quotes out of context and even easier to judge yesterday’s comments or actions by today’s standards.

For example, one could debate whether Thomas Jefferson really believed “all men were created equal” since he owned slaves when he penned our nation’s Declaration of Independence. I digress.

Jessica’s op-ed suggests that opposition to abortion is the one position unifying all of these Republican women. How interesting when there are so many challenges facing America’s women and their families today. Unemployment, the economy, rising child care and college costs just to name a few.

But Jessica’s Republican women would have us focus on denying women reproductive freedom.

There is no decision more fundamental than a woman’s right to choose whether or not to be a mother. No decision will affect her life more intimately or her destiny more profoundly.

Real feminists know this, which is why they trust other women to make childbearing decisions. Too bad some of our real founding mothers aren’t around to set the record straight.

It was enough to stop me in my tracks. Opening the mailbox yesterday to find Sarah Palin on the cover of Newsweek with a glowing halo radiating from her head and the words “Saint Sarah” inscribed below.

I searched the cover for clues, trying to figure out why anyone would call Palin a saint. Then I saw “feminism” in smaller print. Please, no, not another story about a woman being a feminist simply by virtue of her gender. 

In a masochistic move, I flipped to the cover story. I didn’t think it could be worse than “Saint Sarah,” but there it was. The story began with Palin’s recounting of the night she found out she was pregnant with her fifth child. Already the governor of Alaska and mother of four children, Palin wrestled alone in a hotel with the mixed emotions of an unplanned pregnancy. She admits to thinking about her alternatives. 

Then the story fast-forwards to Palin’s son Trig, “the best thing that ever happened to [her] family.” Yes, it worked out for Sarah. Shortly after giving birth, she was catapulted into the national political scene and subsequently made millions. A tidy ending to a story that Palin shares to inspire evangelical women across the country.

The story of Trig is Palin’s parable. She uses it to connect with women and teach a lesson. Like a typical woman in America, she faced an unintended pregnancy. Roughly half of the pregnancies in the US are not planned. Palin considered her options and chose to continue the pregnancy.

Apparently, at this point in the tale, ballrooms filled with evangelical women burst into clapping, stomping and whooping it up. Saint Sarah did the right thing. She’s their heroine, strong and strong willed, their “feminist” role model if only they could stomach the word. 

Sarah Palin’s heartfelt recounting of wrestling alone in a hotel with the mixed emotions of an unplanned pregnancy exemplifies what feminists have been saying for decades. Reproductive health decisions are deeply personal and a woman should be able to make them in accordance with her life and values, which is exactly what Palin did.

For those of us who believe in women’s real equality, Palin’s parable reads a little differently. Her refusal to trust other women to make reproductive health decisions for themselves shows that Palin is no saint much less a feminist.