Fuck No or Fuck Yes, We Must Change the Conversation

When they chose Sarah Palin, conservatives were no doubt counting on the trap feminism puts us in: we absolutely must believe in and honor all women’s agency. If Sarah Palin says she’s a feminist, she must be a feminist. They were counting on feminist solidarity. They wouldn’t try to use it against us if they didn’t think it was all that powerful. 

And they were counting on us not being very critical. Remember, feminists have been out of touch and wrong before. It’s not uncommon that once some feminists find solutions to their personal problems, they stop fighting for other women and still call themselves feminists. 

Sarah Palin probably thinks that she represents a different sort of feminism, maybe not accepted by all feminists, but a feminism that has finally graduated and isn’t a threat to the status quo. Maybe to Sarah Palin, feminism means that you can feel good about being a woman and being powerful. It sounds innocent. 

And if this election weren’t so serious, and the threat to feminism as its meaning is being reshaped wasn’t such a serious threat, I might have the luxury to sit back and watch her experience this new power while she charmingly tries to hide that she’s a beginner. The urgency of this election seems to be what makes us jump on her claims that she is a feminist or does anything for women at all. 

Beware the isolated feminist philosophy that’s in our heads, like it must be in Sarah Palin’s, which (in other women) is certainly experienced for real when it acts as nothing more than a personal solution. Perhaps even some feminists we honor were, for some reason or another, not as far-reaching in their feminist philosophies as we give them credit for. Second-wave had its limitations. The founding mothers did, too. 

There are feminist philosophies that do more for all women than Sarah Palin’s philosophy does for herself. This is what we must argue. For the purposes of the 2008 election and beyond, let’s use this opportunity to better define what works for women rather than get caught in the endless trap of what feminism is. They were counting on that, too.