As Jonah Goldberg and the Anchoress, among many others, have commented on, there’s been a veritable avalanche of hysterical attacks on Sarah Palin from various liberal feminists; I suggested earlier that a lot of liberals were furious that the GOP put a conservative woman on the ticket—how dare they!—and the more recent wave seems to bear that out. A number of feminists are even going so far as to deal with the cognitive dissonance of Gov. Palin’s existence by denying that she’s really a woman. (Shades of Elizabeth Moon.)They are not, however, the only voices out there. Though fewer, there have also been liberal feminists who have expressed appreciation for Gov. Palin, even as they disagree with her positions. Perhaps the most important such voice is the redoubtable Camille Paglia, whose essay in Salon is profoundly important; though her description of Gov. Palin’s “brand new style of muscular American feminism” has drawn the most attention, she has a number of important things to say. I was particularly struck by her critique of her own party:
The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances. . . .It is nonsensical and counterproductive for Democrats to imagine that pro-life values can be defeated by maliciously destroying their proponents. And it is equally foolish to expect that feminism must for all time be inextricably wed to the pro-choice agenda. There is plenty of room in modern thought for a pro-life feminism—one in fact that would have far more appeal to third-world cultures where motherhood is still honored and where the Western model of the hard-driving, self-absorbed career woman is less admired. But the one fundamental precept that Democrats must stand for is independent thought and speech. When they become baying bloodhounds of rigid dogma, Democrats have committed political suicide.
Also of interest is a perspective from the British press, Rebecca Johnson in the Telegraph:
Politics be damned, Palin was a woman and she was an Alaskan! Moreover, I had been impressed with her when I interviewed her—not for her politics (I’m one of those east coast liberals she doesn’t care about) but for the other things that people across the country are responding to right now: her warmth, her work ethic, her “can-do” attitude.We should celebrate what is groundbreaking about Sarah Palin: a card-carrying member of Feminists for Life is a big step forward from Housewives for Life. And then we should talk about the issues.
Finally, DeeDee Myers offered the Obama campaign some wise advice in The New Republic, making the case that they should leave Gov. Palin alone:
What Sarah Palin has done, and this is something I like about her, is that she’s a women who has succeeded very much on her own terms. She talks about motherhood as a training ground for leadership; she manages and balances her family and her work in her own way. It’s very hard to see where her family ends and her work begins. I think a lot of women see their lives that way. Not everyone’s going to go out and shoot a moose and put their hair up in a bun and put on their sexy open-toe shoes and go to dinner. . . . But does everybody have to be lock-step on every issue? Or can somebody who’s outside—in Sarah Palin’s case, very much outside—the traditional feminist agenda still move the ball forward for women? I think the answer is yes. When I hear Pat Buchanan on TV, decrying sexism in the media, you know? This is not all bad. . . . I don’t know where abortion rights are going to end up in all this, and honestly that concerns me, but I think we need to find a different language to talk about it. I think that there are more women who identify with Sarah Palin than Gloria Steinem right now. Even if they don’t agree with 100 percent of her agenda, her life looks more like their lives.
HT: Jennifer RubinUpdate: see also Camille Paglia’s latest contribution on Sarah Palin, and this comment from Elaine Lafferty, the former editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine.