“Establishment Feminism” and Palin

by McQ | October 16, 2008 4:49 pm

Miranda Devine turns over the rock of “establishment feminism” and isn’t pleased with what she sees squirming around underneath[1]:

Judging by the opinion polls this week, the Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin, probably will not get to be the US vice-president. But in her brief starring role on the global stage she has been a powerful psychic enema, flushing out the poison at the heart of establishment feminism for all to see.

No more sheathed claws or pretence about “tolerance” and “diversity”. From Madonna to Sandra Bernhard, Pamela Anderson, Naomi Wolf, Lindsay Lohan and Kathy Lette, a certain type of influential progressive woman has been driven to insane rage by Palin’s very existence.

“Powerful psychic enema?” Heh … fairly descriptive, wouldn’t you say, but how else would you characterize the “product” of those named above but that of an enema?

Love her or hate her, there’s no question Sarah Palin has indeed caused the professional feminists to show their rather tacky hands:

The violent sexual language used against Palin would be intolerable, possibly criminal, from a man. Yet these women think nothing of describing the 44-year-old mother of five as a MILP: “A Mother I’d Like To Punch”.

From the moment Palin emerged, the effect on some women has been like this, from an editor of online feminist magazine Jezebel: “My head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull. Many friends … said things like … ‘This feminist wants to murk that idiotic c–t.’ “

Sisterhood, obviously, is a word reserved for only a portion of the female spectrum.

Why the visceral reaction against Palin when most would think that real feminists, even if they disagreed with her politics, would be celebrating her rise to power. Devine has one theory:

But the intemperate reaction by women to Palin flags something beside ideological differences – a weird, visceral rage, with its roots in some entrenched psychic pain. There is an echo of bitchy high-school jealousy of the popular queen bee from the snarling, self-mutilating nerd and goths who vainly lusted after the cute boys she snared.

The consolation for the losers is that homecoming queens are meant to get married, get pregnant, get fat and lose their looks so the self-made strugglers such as Bernhard and Madonna can patronise them at school reunions. Palin, by having it all, has cheated. Not only was she Miss Wasilla 1984, but she married her childhood sweetheart, Todd Palin, kept her figure, had five attractive, seemingly well-adjusted children and was successful in her career.

Heh … yeah, there is certainly an element of that.

But Devine goes on to say that while there’s some of that, it really hinges on one topic: abortion.

There is even a bumper sticker, “Abort Sarah Palin”, and no diatribe against her fails to mention abortion.

Abortion is the emotional peg on which Palin-haters hang their hatreds and justify their intemperance. The touchstone issue which makes both sides hyperventilate has become such a bedrock article of faith for establishment feminists that they question it as little as their born-again Christian nemeses question the existence of God.

Even in light of medical advances in foetal surgery, premature baby medical care and prenatal imaging, it is unthinkable that progressive women would rethink abortion, even late-term abortion.

For them “choice” is not about choice at all, which is why Palin is such a threat.

“‘Choice’ is not about choice at all.” And any threat or perceived threat to that unspoken belief is met with the viciousness we’ve seen visited on Sarah Palin.

In fact, this particular issue is the corner stone and the sacrament of the secular religion which “establishment feminism” now rests. No deviation is tolerated or allowed.

Why?

Australian MP Christine Campbell says:

“Feminists like myself are just saying [this issue] is not about criminality, but what abortion does to the woman … It injures her deeply. [But] we continue to feed the denial.”

Sarah Palin is an alternative they simply can’t tolerate if they’re to successfully continue to “feed the denial”.

[Crossposted at QandO[2]]

Endnotes:
  1. squirming around underneath: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/miranda-devine/miranda-devine-on-poison-palin-brings-out/2008/10/15/1223750125257.html
  2. QandO: http://www.qando.net/

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