I call myself a 'reformed feminist'. I even believed I was a recovering feminist and I was ashamed that at one time in my life I had believed the GREAT FEMINIST LIE. This 'lie' taught that all women are essentially victims. Victims of the subjugation of men, victims of society and its oppression, victims of government and its ignorance of women's issues, victims of religion and a Patriarchal G-d, and even, at times victims of women themselves. Women ultimately viewed each other with distrust and sought to define each other within a narrow criteria that not all women fit into.
I am so grateful to the Republican Party for reaffirming my belief in the power of women, the rights of women to choose their own life, and the ability of women to ascend above victimhood status. Governor Palin is a woman I can support, admire, and relate to on many levels. She is NO VICTIM nor do I consider myself a victim. We CHOOSE our path.
There was a Feminist ideal within me but modern feminism does not accept that I could chose to believe in G-d, maintain a moral approach to living based upon scriptural principles and values, that I beleived in the right of women to have power in their lives that did not detract from their status as women within a religious framework, and that with purpose and meaning a woman's life could have real value in whatever situation she chose or found herself in. I could truly balance my beliefs while seeking to empower ALL women.
Does my feminism denounce those who are truly in oppressive situations? No way. But we have to empower women in their lives without making them denounce beliefs that they may truly hold dear.
The feminism I learned in college was hate filled, man bashing, us or them, and without victory. All women were inherently victims of something or someone. Feminists had to fight a WAR and the movement developed a warrior like quality that, originally appealed to my youthful ideology and desire to create meaningful change, but now I found it in itself oppressive.
Once I CHOSE to marry and have children the movement lost its appeal for me because it didn't speak to my issues, my life, and my experience. Matter of fact, my choice to be a highly educated stay-at-home mother with a solid faith in G-d put me outside of the accepted 'feminist' experience in someways and yet in others it espoused the thought that my religious choices were making me a 'victim' which meant that someone needed to 'save me' from myself since I must be brainwashed. The movement taught that no real 'feminist' would believe in a Patriarchal religion.
In my mind, the movement took on a 'nazi' like approach. Fascism is the belief that you know what is best for everyone else and if a person doesn't 'get it' then you must save them from themselves. You must find subtle and not so subtle ways to 'indoctrinate' them to your better way of thinking. The Feminist Movement took an almost 'threatening approach' hence Rush Limbaugh's coining the phrase 'Femnazi'. It was not a movement I wanted to align myself with. I was no longer in 'warrior' mode. I was in daily 'mommy mode' and I did NOT want my young daughters to grow to believe they were victims of anyone or anything. No way.
The Republican Party made a wise choice in Governor Palin. She is a woman for a woman in the trenches, balancing heaven, home, and family. She is a woman whose personal choices can give ALL women hope that their voice can be heard. This is not just a hard line conservative stand either. She has shown balance in her voting by taking on big government, taking on her own party, supporting same-sex partner rights that benefit couples without desiring a legal definition of marriage (this makes her more mainstream than too hard to handle for those fence straddling liberals), and making the ultimate choice----saving the life of her child with Down's Syndrome and supporting her young, pregnant daughter.
Do I agree with everything? I never do for any candidate, but she has more that I stand for and more that I believe in. When she says she can affect change she has a proven record to support that. Evidence is a TALKING POINT.
She is the FACE OF MODERN FEMINISM. Maybe SHE needs to be Time's WoMAN of the YEAR!!!
She is the Gloria Steinem that Steinem would have really wanted to be------a woman that TRULY has it ALL. Gloria, bless her little femnazi heart, was never able to achieve that balance and now can't find herself suppporting the ONE woman who broke the ceiling. Obama didn't even give Hilary a chance to do that. For shame......In Gloria's attacks on Palin she shows she is no better than the men and the establishment she fought. She had to sink to the ultimately low against a fellow female to make her high point that Palin is just not 'feminist' enough, just not woman enough for the VP job. FOR SHAME GLORIA........
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjE4ZTcxZjQ5YjBiYzFlMGJlMzk5YjNjOTkyZWQyMTg=&w=MA==
